Reading and Breathing

Nonfiction Monday: Civil War Titles

2012-01-02T10:00:00.007-05:00

Recently I’ve been reading a lot of nonfiction in preparation for some research my students will be doing. I’m looking for good narrative nonfiction that will work well with the new common core standards that my state has adopted. Starting tomorrow, I have a group of students who are researching the Civil War, so I thought I’d prepare some booktalks for them.

Fields of Fury by James M. McPherson is a good, brief overview of the Civil War. It covers the major battles, as well as, chapters about such topics as the brothers who fought on opposite sides of the war and role of women and of African-Americans during the war. I think it works well as an introduction to the war, though it doesn’t have much depth.

United No More: Stories of the Civil War by Doreen Rappaport and Joan Veniero tells the stories of several individuals, both military and civilian. While some of the people are quite famous (Julia Ward Howe, Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, and Ulysses S. Grant), others were new to me. I especially enjoyed the story of Eugenia Phillips, who was imprisoned for laughing during the funeral procession of a Union lieutenant. The story of William H. Carney, and African-American soldier who fought in the famous Massachusetts 54^th Regiment was particularly interesting. The only quibble I have is that the authors chose to fictionalize parts of the book. While I think this will make the book more accessible to reluctant readers, part of me still wishes the authors had not chosen to do this.

Under Siege: Three Children at the Civil War Battle for Vicksburg by Andrea Warren was my favorite of the Civil War books I read for my booktalks. One of the primary goals of the Union at the beginning of the war was to divide the Confederacy in two by controlling the Mississippi River. Union forces were able to capture Memphis, Tennessee and New Orleans, Louisiana, but as of 1863, they had not been successful in their attempt to capture Vicksburg, Mississippi. Eventually they decided to surround the city and literally starve the soldiers and civilians until they surrendered. The civilians dug caves in the hillside to escape the constant shelling, and they waited for help that never came. As food ran out, they ate the horses, mules, cats and dogs and then resorted to eating any rodents they could capture. This was hard on the adults, but it was also brutal on the children. Under Siege tells the story of two children who were in Vicksburg during the time of the siege. It also tells the story of Ulysses S. Grant’s oldest son, Frederick Grant who was 12 years old at the time and was with his father during the siege. Frederick was wounded during the Battle of Vicksburg and at one time it was feared that he would lose his leg. This is a great story of survival that could generate much discussion about what it’s like to be a child and live in a warzone.

For those who like to read a more in-depth account of a specific battle, A Savage Thunder: Antietam and the Bloody Road to Freedom by Jim Murphy is an excellent account of that battle. It would be great for students who love battle detail and strategy. Murphy (whose nonfiction books constantly amaze me) explains the motivations of both General Lee and General McClellan and is pretty condemning of McClellan’s inaction that could have led to a swifter end to the war.

No Moon by Irene Watts

2011-11-11T11:20:00.001-05:00

No Moon

Irene N. Watts

When she was just five years old, Louisa Gardener and her sister Kathleen were told to watch over their baby brother while they were on a visit by the sea. But they were both little girls and they let him get out of their sight. His body was found later, drowned in the ocean. Louisa has been deathly afraid of the ocean ever since.

Now Louisa is a nursemaid for a wealthy London family. She loves her new job. It’s hard work and the Nanny Mackintosh is difficult to work for but she knows she is fortunate to have such a good position when she’s only fourteen. Now, because Nanny Mackintosh has broken her ankle and her wrist, Louisa has been told that she will be in charge of Lord and Lady Milton’s two daughters as they sail across the Atlantic on the Titanic. She doesn’t want to go but she doesn’t want to lose her job either so one fateful day she and the Milton family set sail on the most famous and tragic ship of all times.

I’m doing a series of booktalks on the Titanic on Monday, so my weekend will be spent read a number of books, both fiction and nonfiction, about the ship. I really enjoyed this one. Irene Watts must be a fan of Upstairs, Downstairs because she does an excellent job of portraying the lives of both the servants and those they serve and there were several parts of the novel that reminded me of that series.

The Watch that Ends the Night

2011-10-20T19:26:00.002-04:00

The Watch that Ends the Night: Voices from the Titanic

Allan Wolf

Like many people, there was a time in which I was fascinated by the Titanic. Between the movie, the books, and all of television documentaries, there was a lot to feed my obsession. I did eventually become over-saturated with Titanic facts and was ready to move on to other things. 2012, however, marks the one-hundredth anniversary of the sinking and I’m sure there will be a lot of books and new tv specials about it. The Watch that Ends the Night is the first book I’ve read about Titanic in a long time, and it was a treat.

Told in verse form, this book tells the story of the sinking from many different viewpoints, including a ship’s rat and the iceberg. I love the inevitability of the disaster as spoken by the iceberg (“I’ll have my heart. I have my part to play/The ice will have his pick of human hearts/as soon as fair Titanic plays her part.”). Each voice in the book is different and each adds richness to the total tale. Wolf’s research is evident throughout the story – I learned much from reading it. I highly recommend The Watch that Ends the Night.

Shine

2011-03-15T19:51:00.003-04:00

Shine

Lauren Myracle

Cat has had a miserable three years. Because of a traumatizing event when she was 13, she has basically shut herself off from all her friends, even her best friend Patrick. Now it may be too late to make things right. Patrick has been found at the convenience shore where he works, horribly beaten and in a coma. Worse yet, it looks like the attack is because Patrick is gay, and in the small, backwoods town they live in, being gay is simply unacceptable. Cat knows is attacker is most likely one of the local boys she grew up with, and she is determined to find out who it is and if the attack was truly a matter of homophobia. As she delves into the mystery, she discovers how many of the town are addicted to meth, and that their addiction will drive them to any lengths to get what they need.

I was fortunate to attend on of Lauren Myracle’s sessions at the North Carolina School Library Media Association Conference in November where I got an ARC to Shine. My daughter has read the book twice but I haven’t had a chance to read it until last night. I absolutely fell in love with it.

First, the language and the setting. It’s spot-on. I knew Myracle had the language correct with this sentence: “What with the new Wal-Mart in Asheville, almost all the stores in town went on and closed.” Not an important sentence in the story by any means, but the “went on and closed” is rural NC and it enabled me to settle down and engross myself in the language of my cousins. The setting is a small mountain town and I could see it, feel it, as I read the book. Myracle spent time in the mountains when she was younger and it shows.

I also loved the characters. While it might be argued that the adults are somewhat one-dimensional, they are truly part of the background so that Cat and her contemporaries are allowed to be the story, warts and all. Cat is damaged – that is evident from the beginning – but she is able to overcome her past to find the answers she craves. I do anticipate some criticisms to the character of Robert, an eleven-year-old fetal alcohol victim whose impulsive hyperactivity tends to get him in trouble. To those who don’t think his character is realistic, I would say that I’ve taught several Roberts in my 22 years as a middle school teacher.

There are serious problems in Black Creek – homophobia, meth addiction, alcoholism – and they are not at all trivialized. In fact, one of the many reasons Shine should be a mandatory read is to deter people from trying meth. This is not an easy, pleasant read, but I found myself hiding in my office to finish it this morning.

School Library Journal's Battle of the Books

2011-03-08T06:33:00.001-05:00

Last March I followed SLJ’s Battle of the Books with interest, even though I hadn’t read any of the books. This year I decided to read all 16 books before the battle began and I’m so glad I did. Although a few of the books were on my radar before SLJ chose them, most were not. Out of the 16 there were only two that I didn’t really care for, and there were several that I loved but would have never read had it not been for the list.

Which were my favorites? I loved The Ring of Solomon and would have never thought to have read it. I also loved Sugar Changed the World, They Called Themselves the KKK, The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie, A Tale Dark and Grimm and Dreamer. I really think One Crazy Summer will win and it is a superb book, but The Ring of Solomon has my heart and I would love to be surprised.

It will be interesting to see how the judges vote. The actual competition begins on March 14 – and I can’t wait to see who will win each round.

Dirty Little Secrets

2011-03-07T20:44:00.002-05:00

Dirty Little Secrets

C.J. Omololu

Lucy guesses she loved her mom, at least mom she used not have – not the mom who has verbally abused her over the years and whose hoarding has made Lucy’s home a place of shame and embarrassment where at her old school the kids call Lucy Garbage Girl. But Lucy has been able to start over at the public high school where she has a best friend and nobody knows her secret. Now Lucy has found her mom dead in the midst of all the junk she has hoarded over the years. She doesn’t call for help. Afterall, “the paramedics couldn’t help someone who’d had their head cut off or had been shot straight through the heart – or had died under a six-foot-tall stack of National Geographics.” (p. 32) And that’s exactly what has happened. Nadine has had an asthma attack and literally died under the piles. The natural thing is to call 911, but if Lucy does that there’s no way her secret won’t get in the news for all to see. So Lucy decides the only way to fix everything is to solve the problem herself – and her solution is drastic, to say the least.

For the most part I enjoyed this one. I must admit there were times that I had to just put the book down because Lucy's pain as she is dealing with a situation that seems insurmountable was just too much. I think this will be a hit with my older girls.

They Call Themselves the KKK

2011-03-06T12:43:00.004-05:00

They Call Themselves the KKK: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group

Susan Campbell Bartoletti

I read this because it was part of School Library Journal's Battle of the Books. It covers the K.K.K. from its birth around the end of the Civil War until the end of Reconstruction, when (at least outwardly) Klan activities diminished, only to return in the early 20th century.

Bartoletti does an excellent job of showing the horrors of the early Klan and explaining how both the whites and the blacks felt intimidated by each other. Complete social change is difficult, and Reconstruction's effort to create equality for all ultimately fails.

I found this book to be fascinating. It is difficult to read in some spots, because Bartoletti doesn't pull any punches when it comes to relating the horrors of the acts committed by the Klan. I really appreciated her use of primary source accounts of both African-Americans and Klansmen.

Is this a book for everyone? Probably not. It is definitely of interest to those of us who live in the South, but I"m not sure how much relevance it would have to people from other regions of the United States (I'd love to know other's opinions about that)

Rush

2011-01-02T13:28:00.002-05:00

Rush

Jonathan Friesen

There are two things that make Jake King feel alive: his next-door neighbor Salome and the dangerous stunts he pulls to get an adrenaline rush. He’s managed to get kicked out of high school because of one of his stunts and now his father (who owns the mill in the small California town) has pulled some strings to get him a place on the team of firefighters who rappel from helicopters in the midst of forest fires. It’s the best rush of all, but Jake soon realizes that the leader of the group, Mox, is dangerous. Mox has created a secret club called the Immortals and in order to be a member you must pass an initiation rite, stunts that can easily get you killed, and that has killed many of the young firefighters who have attempted the rite before Jake.

I’m not real sure what to say about this one. I picked it up because I always need more “boy books” in my booktalking repertoire and this certainly qualified. I found it jumpy in places – Friesen doesn’t always explain things as well as I would like. I cannot help but wonder if that’s because it is a book geared towards guys and I’m fonder of the descriptive style used more commonly with girl books. I’d like to hand this one to some of my 8^th graders and see if they found the beginning as confusing as I did and if they liked Friesen’s writing style.

The copy of Rush that I used from this review came from my school library.

The Brooklyn NIne

2010-11-11T18:33:00.003-05:00

The Brooklyn Nine: A Novel in Nine Innings

Alan Gratz

It first must be understood that I don’t like baseball. Never have. Football, on the other hand I could watch 7 days a week. So when a baseball book made the North Carolina Battle of the Books list, I wasn’t thrilled, and I saved it until the next to last book to read. But then I heard Alan Gratz speak at the North Carolina School Library Media Association conference and was a little intrigued. So I started the book this morning with a somewhat open mind.

And what did I think? Well, I don’t think I’ll ever like baseball, but I really liked this book. As the title indicated it’s divided into nine parts, all following a family from 1845 until 2002. Each “inning” reflects its time period – the 1864 inning is set during the Civil War in Virginia, for example and some of the innings detail serious societal problems, such as racism, the Cold War, and the numbers racket. Most tell the story of a male in the family, but two innings are devoted to girls, proving that females can love the sport as much as their male counterparts. I do think some of the stories were stronger than others, but overall they make a fun read, and a good way for me to spend my day.

The copy of The Brooklyn Nine that I read for this book was obtained from my school library.

The Cassini Code

2010-11-08T19:07:00.003-05:00

The Cassini Code

Dom Testa

The Galahad has gotten through two crises. Filled with teenagers escaping a deadly virus on Earth, it now must get through perhaps the most serious problem yet. As long as they could work together, the crew could problem solve and survive the challenges. But what happens when they encounter two challenges – one outside the ship and one inside the ship?

The third book in the Galahad series, The Cassini Code begins as the ship encounters the Kuiper Belt, an area of space covered with asteroids. The odds of the ship getting through the asteroids without being pulverized are roughly 12 to 1 but this is the only route out of the solar system and to the planet where they think they’ll be able to start a new life. To make matters worse, some members of the crew want to turn around and go back to Earth, even if it means inevitable death.

This was my favorite book of the series. First, you have a danger of the asteroids. On top of this is the threat of mutiny. There is absolutely no possibility of 250 teenagers being on board a ship and there not being conflict, and Testa is spot-on in his portrayal of mature, intelligent teenagers who are having to figure out how to get along with each other. As crew members begin to doubt their mission, they start wearing yellow armbands, and their leader, Merit, is quite charismatic -- the comparisons to Hitler are unavoidable. The only problem with The Cassini Code is that I’ll have to wait until March for the next installment.

I purchased the copy of The Cassini Code that I reviewed.

My Father's Son

2010-09-06T10:12:00.003-04:00

My Father’s Son
Terri Fields

Kevin Windor is just a normal boy with divorced parents. He lives most of the times with his mom, but he goes over to his dad’s house on the weekends. He does well in school and has a crush on a girl in Spanish class. She seems to have feelings for him too – that is if the kiss they shared is any indication.

But then on one unforgettable day Kevin turns on the television to discover his father has been arrested as the notorious DB25 Monster, a man who has attacked at least 11 women, leaving most of them dead. Kevin is stunned. This is his daddy – a man who he had adored all of his life. How can he be a serial killer?

As time passes, the evidence against Kevin’s dad gets worse. Originally caught climbing out of the window of the eleventh victim, his father’s DNA has been found under the victim’s fingernails. Kevin has been so completely sure that his father is innocent but now he’s having some doubts. And things aren’t getting any easier for Kevin either He’s constantly getting strange looks at school, and most people won’t have anything to do with him. It’s like everyone thinks he is going to turn into a monster at any moment. How do you survive when your world falls apart and how do you prove your father is innocent when you’re not so sure yourself?

For the most part I thought this was really good. It was quite suspenseful, and I felt for Kevin. I think this will be a good book for my 8th graders.

The Web of Titan

2010-02-18T18:23:00.002-05:00

The Web of Titan

Dom Testa

One common trait people have carried through the years, with a few exceptions, is fear of the unknown. Humans need a comfort zone of the familiar, and when that’s shattered the automatic response is often dread, anxiety, or downright terror.

Take our good friends on the spacecraft called Galahad. Their entire mission is a voyage to the unknown, and it’s unfair to think that an ample dose of fear doesn’t ride along with them. Each day they move farther away from the warm embrace of Earth, and deeper into the infinite void of space. (p. 9, ARC)

Life on Galahad has calmed down considerably since the saboteur was defeated. As the teenagers settle in on their voyage, they quite naturally begin to think and talk about romance. But things are not destined to remain calm. Galahad is close to Saturn where they are asked to pick up a pod from a research station orbiting the planet. They have no idea about what’s in the pod, or about what happened to the people in the research station who mysteriously stopped transmitting to Earth at approximately the same time Galahad left the planet.

When they get the pod in the ship they discover an empty cryogenic chamber and a smaller chamber with a cat inside. They revive the cat, but can’t help but wonder what happened to the human who was obviously meant for the other chamber. In addition, strange things are beginning to happen on board Galahad. Some crewmembers are reporting excruciating headaches, eventually becoming unconscious and then waking up with glowing eyes. And systems aboard the ship are mysteriously malfunctioning, threatening the ship’s survival. Without help from Earth, the crew has to figure out what happened to the original research station in order to try and save their ship.

I really enjoyed the first book of this series, The Comet’s Curse, and I also enjoyed this installment. I especially like the characters – they are diverse both culturally and personality. It will be interesting to see how these characters develop as they progress on their journey. That said, this is a series book and it reads like one. It doesn’t stand alone and you are left waiting for the next installment. I know that the romances on board are important to the development of the characters but I hope that Testa will concentrate on the adventures they will have as they travel to their new home.

The copy of The Web of Titan that I used for this review was an Advanced Reading copy that I received from the author. The Web of Titan will be released on June 29, 2010 . Quotes are from the ARC and should be checked against the final printed copy of the book.

What I Read in January

2010-01-31T16:44:00.001-05:00

I have read 12 books during the month of January – pretty good for me. Almost all of the books are young adult or children’s books. I do need to read more adult books, but right now the pile of books at school is what is calling the loudest. I don’t review all the books I read, just the ones I liked or feel I have something substantive to talk about. Here’s what I got read this month (if I reviewed it, I linked to the review):

Young Adult and Children’s Fiction:

Perfect You by Elizabeth Scott – I liked this one but never got around to reviewing it.

Purge by Sarah Littman Darer

The Comet’s Curse by Dom Testa

After the Train by Gloria Whelan

The Youngest Templar: Keeper of the Grail by Michael Spradlin

The Battle for Duncragglin by Andrew H. Vanderwal

Lost and Found by Andrew Clements

Fallen by Lauren Kate

Young Adult and Children’s Nonfiction

You Wouldn’t Want to Meet a Body Snatcher by Fiona MacDonald – this is a great series to booktalk

Getting to Know Your Toilet: The Disgusting Story behind Your Home’s Strangest Feature by Connie Colwell Miller – this one is going to fly off my shelves when I booktalk it – gross stuff is always popular

Graphic Novels

The Elsewhere Chronicles: The Shadow Door by Nykko

Adult Nonfiction

A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle – Boy, do I want to go back to France now!

Fallen

2010-01-31T15:20:00.004-05:00

Fallen

Lauren Kate

Luce has always seen these mysterious, threatening shadows and they have always frightened her. As a child she had to visit therapists and was put on anti-psychotic drugs for a time. Even so, she has managed to overcome her problems and excel in school until one horrible night when she was with a boy, a fire broke out, and the boy was killed. Luce cannot remember what happened or whether she was at fault and so she is sent by court order to a reform school. The school, located in her hometown of Savannah, is old and decrepit and many of the students there are strange. Even so, Luce manages to make a couple of friends and she meets someone who takes her breath away. It feels like she has met Daniel before but he denies it and wants to have nothing to do with her. But like a moth to a flame, she is drawn to Daniel, even going to the point of sneaking into the records room to see his school record. Making matters more confusing, another boy, Cam, is interested in her also and she cannot help but find him intriguing. Hanging over everything is a sense of danger and foreboding – something bad is going to happen.

I really enjoyed the characters in this novel. They had depth and were fun to read about. While it was easy to figure out the good vs. bad nature of some characters, others surprised me. The character I was least fond of was Luce – she just spent too much time being clueless and, like Bella with Edward, she was obsessed with Daniel to the point of absurdity. I hope that in the next book, she will be better informed and better able to take care of herself.

I do have some issues with the book. First of all, for a strict reform school, things were awfully lax. How many reform schools would have girls and guys living across the hall from each other? And how do students not show up for class without getting in all kinds of trouble? These things, among others, really bothered me throughout the book.

While the beginning of the book seemed slow to me, I felt the ending was rushed and therefore the author didn’t have time in the end to really explain what was happening and so I got confused and was left with a lot of questions – questions that hopefully will be answered in the next installment. Because so much went unanswered, I felt the book’s plot was choppy. Like most books of its kind, it had several moments of melodrama, some of which made me want to roll my eyes.

This is an obvious choice for students who loved Twilight and want something along those lines. I think it’s darker than Twilight and so might be more appropriate for an 8^th grade to high school audience. Even though Fallen had its flaws, I will read the sequel when it comes out in the fall of 2010.

The copy of the book that I used for this review was borrowed from one of my students.

POC Reading Challenge

2010-01-30T08:39:00.004-05:00

I am late in joining the POC reading challenge but this has been a crazy month and I wanted to complete the comment challenge first. As a general rule, I don't do book challenges because I stink at them, but this was was too important to pass up.

I'm joining the POC challenge at Level 4, reading 10 - 12 books. Right now, these are the books I'm planning on choosing from:

Tyrell – Coe Booth

First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover – Matali Perkins

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Freedom – Phillip Hoose

The Rock and the River – Kekla Magoon

Sunrise over Fallujah – Walter Dean Myers

Rain is Not My Indian Name – Cynthia Leitich Smith

The Afterlife – Gary Soto

Jumped – Rita Williams-Garcia

After Tupac and D Foster – Jacqueline Woodson

Ten Things I Hate About Me – Randa Abdel-Fattah

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian – Sherman Alexie

Return to Sender – Julia Alvarez

The Youngest Templar

2010-01-16T10:05:00.001-05:00

The Youngest Templar: Keeper of the Grail

Michael P. Spradlin

Tristan has only known life in the monastery where he was found as an infant. Although he was raised by monks, he has never had the desire to become one, so when a group of Knights Templar stops there on their way to fight in the Third Crusade, he accepts the offer to become a squire to one of the leaders, Sir Thomas. Unfortunately he also makes an enemy of the other leader, Sir Hugh.

When they reach the Holy Land, Tristan soon discovers that fighting and killing are not much fun, and unfortunately there is plenty of both. When Acre is attacked and it is apparent that it will fall to the enemy, Sir Thomas entrusts Tristan with the greatest treasure of Christendom – the Holy Grail and tells him to take it to a church in Scotland. Tristan must make his way through the Saracens, past Sir Hugh and hope to get safely out of the Holy Land. He’ll find a couple of companions along the way, and encounter more trouble than he ever bargained for.

I didn’t find Keeper of the Grail to be great historical fiction, but it was fun to read and I think it will be popular to many of my boys. It reads like many of the Dan Brown like adult adventure novels, but without so much explanation about every facet of the story. While I was glad about this last part, I do wish there were a little more explanation about the Crusades, because I fear that many of the students who are going to attempt this novel will know nothing about them. I’m a big fan of authors’ notes either at the beginning or ending of a novel, explaining the historical setting of the novel.

I found the characters of Tristan, Robard, and Maryam to be likable but I thought Sir Thomas and Sir Hugh were fairly one-dimensional characters. This is the first book in a series, and the second book is already out.

The Comet's Curse

2010-01-10T13:17:00.002-05:00

The Comet’s Curse

Dom Testa

At first it was just an interesting spectacle – a comet coming close enough to Earth to be seen clearly, its tail passing through Earth’s atmosphere. But then, mysteriously, adults on Earth begin to sicken and die. It’s soon determined that the tail contained a mysterious virus, a virus that only affected adults but that was deadly. It looked as though all of mankind was doomed. But then a scientist decides that the way to save the human race was to send 251 teenagers off to another planet where they can start fresh. A world-wide search was started and the teenagers chosen. After teary goodbyes they leave Earth forever on a five-year trip to Eos and a new life. Unfortunately, there are those who are opposed to the entire mission and they are willing to do anything to stop it, even if it means killing everyone aboard.

This was a truly enjoyable read for me. I’ve been rewatching the original Star Trek episodes recently and The Comet’s Curse fit right in with that. Yes, there are some predictable plot points, but it didn’t matter to me. This book was exciting and had really likable characters. I appreciated the fact that the crew of the ship was multicultural but that wasn’t thrown in your face; instead it was seamlessly integrated into the story.

Like all good science fiction, The Comet’s Curse also gave me an interesting moral issue to ponder. Was it morally right for so many scientists to devote literally their last moments alive to saving just a few people instead of working on a cure (even though it had been pretty well accepted that a cure wasn’t likely)? I think I would feel that the existence of the human species would warrant such drastic action as sending teenagers off into space, but it would make for interesting discussion.

The Comet’s Curse is the first installment in a projected six-part series.

The copy that I used for this review was acquired from my school library.

Purge

2010-01-06T16:18:00.004-05:00

Purge

Sarah Darer Littman

What does it mean to be perfect? For Janie, perfection is her older sister, the sister that her father is always comparing her to. But now Janie’s life has spiraled out of control and she is now in an inpatient treatment facility. It has taken a traumatic event at her sister’s wedding for her parents to discover that she has had bulimia for two years, and although Janie recognizes that she has an eating disorder, she isn’t yet willing to discuss with her therapist or with the other patients in her group. She is, however, willing to explore her problems in the journal she is asked to keep and in it the reader discovers just how insecure she is. When asked to come up with ten words that describe how she sees herself, Janie’s answer is:

Fat.

Sad.

Bulimic.

Screwed up.

Defective.

Smart.

Ugly.

Empty.

Confused.

Scared.

Janie’s unsure if her family and friends will ever forgive her for screwing up so badly, even though they don’t know the whole story – they don’t know why she ruined her sister’s wedding. Until she’s willing to face her demons, she has no chance of being allowed to go home.

I have to confess that Purge and I didn’t start off well. Based on several reviews, I had purchased it for my middle school library (teen problem books are very popular with my students). The book did give me some issues with language and mature situations until I realized that, at least in my opinion, Purge would be better suited for grades 9 - 12. Once I accepted that, I was able to really appreciate what Littman was doing. Although I’ve never suffered from bulimia and so don’t have first-hand experience with it, I think she did an excellent job depicting how difficult it is to recover from an eating disorder (Littman did suffer from bulimia as a teenager). I really liked Janie and sympathized with her problems. I’m glad I read Purge and I look forward to reading more books by Littman.

The Chosen One

2009-12-30T08:34:00.004-05:00

The Chosen One
Carol Lynch Williams

Thirteen-year-old Kyra’s life has always been ordered and planned. Afterall, she is a Chosen One – a member of a polygamous cult who is led by a man called the Prophet. Her father has three wives which is not all that many – her uncle Hyrum has six wives. There are twenty children in Kyra’s family with two more on the way. Her family, large though it is, is close-knit and loving.

Kyra has a streak of rebellion in her (although she doesn’t really think of it as rebellion). She has a secret (kissing only) relationship with a teenage boy who lives at the same compound and she surreptitiously visits the local bookmobile. Books are forbidden in the group but each week she checks out one and hides it in a tree. Joshua has said he wants to Choose her, to marry her and Kyra’s thrilled. So she is devastated when the prophet comes to visit and tells her that she must marry her Uncle Hyrum, a man who is 60 years old. Even though her father tries to get the marriage prevented, he is unsuccessful and both Krya and Joshua are horribly beaten when Joshua asks to marry her instead. It becomes increasingly clear that escape is going to be her only option, but escape means giving her family forever. Escape is also not guaranteed to succeed – it could also result in her death.

I enjoyed this book, although I found it to be a little too dramatic at times. Williams does a good job of showing that though these polygamous groups are dangerous because of their potential for abuse, not everyone within them is abused or miserable. Kyra may have strict mothers, but the children are well loved and her father is attentive and loving to all of his children. I think this book will be in high demand from my eighth graders, to whom I plan to booktalk it as soon as Christmas break is over.

Once Was Lost

2009-12-28T08:26:00.002-05:00

Once Was Lost

Sarah Zarr

It appears to Sam that everything in her life is broken down. Sam’s father is a pastor, her beautiful but fragile mother is an alcoholic who has had to go to rehab after a DUI. Even though their church is quite successful, money is tight, so tight that every time their credit card is used, they breathe a sigh of relief when it goes through. The world around Sam is broken down too – the town is suffering from a massive heat wave and both the air conditioning and her ceiling fan are broken. The plants outside that her mother had planted are dying. The heat is oppressive, suffocating.

And then the unthinkable happens. A thirteen-year-old girl in Sam’s church is kidnapped. Sam’s father becomes the family’s spokesman and encourages Sam to go and stay with her friends until the crisis is over. Sam resists but ultimately agrees to go for a short time. As the search for Jody continues, the likelihood of her being found diminishes and Sam’s faith flounders.

I honestly don’t think I can do a better job of reviewing this book than Liz Burns did over at Tea Cozy so I’m not going to try. Liz hits all the important points and I’m only mentioning the title here because there may be some people not familiar with her blog (her blog is probably my favorite literature blog). I found the book to be beautifully written, with lots of possibilities for discussion with literature circles or book clubs.

One of the Survivors

2009-12-21T19:01:00.002-05:00

One of the Survivors

Susan Shaw

Joey and Maureen were the lucky ones. The fire alarm had been constantly going off that day at school. Each time the intercom would come on, telling everyone that they were testing the new alarm system. But the last time it goes off, the intercom message is fuzzy. Mr. Austen is annoyed by the interruptions to his class and he tells everyone to ignore the alarm again. But Joey can’t. His mother died the previous year in a fire, and he and his best friend are the only people in the class to defy their teacher and evacuate their classroom. They are also the only ones to survive the fire that kills everyone else.

Needless to say, Joey is traumatized by the whole thing. Afraid to be in his house and harassed by those who blame him for the fire (looking for someone to blame, he and Maureen became the natural, albeit innocent, scapegoats) Joey cannot get past what has happened to him. There are those, however, who can and do help him get over the trauma.

I have read two books by Susan Shaw and I think that she has “child who is traumatized by terrible event that has happened” down pat. I especially love Joey’s father who is patient and loving and everything a father needs to be in such a terrible situation. Overall I enjoyed this book, but it’s a quiet book and so won’t appeal to those who feel the need to have action on every page.

The copy that I reviewed came from my school library.

Let It Snow

2009-12-20T07:11:00.005-05:00

Let it Snow

Maureen Johnson, John Green, Lauren Myracle

It started snowing in North Carolina Friday and I figured this would be the perfect book to read while watching the snow (and if I have to wait until the next snowfall it might be a few years :-) This is a series of three stories, all set in a small town in North Carolina during a blizzard. Maureen Johnson writes about a girl whose parents have been arrested in a riot over a Christmas village piece who is going to Florida to stay with her grandparents when her train crashes into a snowbank. When she ends up in a Waffle House with a bunch of cheerleaders, a boy from town rescues her. The story has all of charming Maureen Johnson quirkiness to it without being too absurd. I loved it.

John Green then takes over with a road trip story -- a road trip to the same Waffle House with the cheerleaders. But that quest to find love may in the long run turn out to have a satisfying conclusion right beside you. This story has John Green written all over it, indeed I was reminded several times of characters from Paper Towns. Green's voice is strong throughout the story.

Lauren Myracle's story focuses on a girl who is despondent because she cheated on her boyfriend and is remorseful and wants him back. Addie is perhaps the hardest character to like because she's fairly self-centered (and is reminded of that several times through the story) but I will say in her self-centeredness she is a typical teenage girl. She does grow in the story and characters appear from the other two stories to give a sense of connectedness.

This is a great, fun Christmas-time read, especially if these are authors you enjoy. Overall I did enjoy the book and may read it again next Christmas.

I purchased the copy of Let it Snow that I reviewed.

The Declaration

2009-12-18T10:56:00.002-05:00

The Declaration

Gemma Malley

It is the future. An incredible thing has happened. Disease has been cured and a drug that will extend life forever has been discovered. Sounds like paradise, but there’s one hitch. With nobody dying the world is becoming overpopulated and running out of resources. So the Declaration is created. People have a choice – take the Longevity drug and never die, or Opt Out and have children. Pretty much everyone chooses not to die, but there are a few that rebel and have children anyway. If the children are captured (and they are almost always captured), they are considered Surplus and are sent to live in Grange Hall where they are trained to be servants for those who are legal. These children are treated horribly and are brainwashed to think that they should never have been born.

Anna had been at Grange Hall longer than any other child. She is determined to become a Valuable Asset in someone’s home. But then a new Surplus shows up. Peter is unusual because he was not captured as a young child, and he refuses to submit to the brainwashing and abuse that the other children take for granted. He quickly ingratiates himself to Anna and tells her that he knows her real parents and he has been sent to help her escape and take her to them. Anna is not inclined to believe him or even to care about her parents (after all they are terrible people for breaking the law and having her) but when it becomes apparent that the head mistress of Grange Hall is going to have Peter murdered, she decides to help him escape and to leave with him.

I’ve read a lot of books in which children are treated badly – whether it’s from child abuse or neglect or from addictions on the parts of the parents. The Declaration, however, is different. In this book the mere existence of the children is treated as despicable. People are willing – even eager – to trade the existence of children, a natural and good part of the life cycle, for the opportunity to live forever (certainly an unnatural thing). The abuse and brain-washing that Anna suffers was very painful for me to read.

This is certainly a compelling read, and I’m eager to read the second book in the series. It’s a great choice for anyone who loves dystopian fiction.

The copy of the book that I read was from my school library.

this world we live in

2009-12-08T18:10:00.002-05:00

this world we live in

Susan Beth Pfeffer

The only color I know now is gray, the gray of ash and dirt and sadness.

It’s been less than a year since everything changed, less than a year since hunger and darkness and death have become so commonplace, but I couldn’t remember what life – life the way I used to know it – had been like. I couldn’t remember blue. (p. 2, ARC)

Yesterday I checked my mailbox at school just before I left for the day and discovered an ARC of this world we live in. My plans to finish decorating my house for Christmas quickly flew out the window because the rest of my evening was spent devouring the book (I have a very understanding husband who even cooked dinner so that I could read).

this world we live in begins about a month after Miranda’s last entry in Life as We Knew It. While finally the family is beginning to receive food every week from the government, they are very aware that eventually the food will run out. Because the world outside is finally beginning to thaw, Matt and Jon decide to walk to the Delaware River (about 15 miles away) to fish for shad and hopefully bring enough back to supplement their diet for a while. Not only do they bring back fish, but Matt brings back a wife, Syl. While not exactly welcomed with open arms, Syl soon begins to fit in with the family. And then more company arrives. Miranda’s father, stepmother, and baby brother show up and they bring three new people: Alex and Julie (the brother and sister from the dead and the gone) and Charlie, a man they met on their journey. Now with eleven mouths to feed, survival has become just that much harder.

I honestly don’t want to say anything else about the book because I don’t want to spoil it. this world we live in is a bleak book, but it’s appropriate for the world Pfeffer has created. It’s the story of a family who has been thrown in an impossibly difficult situation yet they are managing (barely) to survive. It is their struggle that haunts me – it’s been two years since I read Life as We Knew It and yet I still think about Miranda and how much food it would take for our family to survive if we were thrust in the same situation.

While this is a survival story, it is also a novel about people and I have become quite attached to the characters. Pfeffer has done a wonderful job with characterization – I feel as though I know Miranda and her family. I don’t feel like I really got to know Alex and Julie any better but that’s ok – this was Miranda’s story and she’s who I really cared about. I have read Pfeffer’s blog for the past two years, and I know she debated about several different plots when writing the third novel. I’m thankful she settled on the story that became the world we live in because it’s a perfect way to end this trilogy.

I received an Advanced Reading Copy from the author and used it to review the book. Quotes need to be checked against the final printed copy of the book, which will be released in April 2010.

Dragon's Keep

2009-10-24T20:22:00.012-04:00

Dragon’s Keep

Janet Lee Carey

Rosalind, princess of Wilde Island, is almost perfectly beautiful. She has a lovely face and will have a beautiful shape when she is a woman. But she is not perfect. The ring finger of her left hand – the finger on which she should wear her wedding ring – is not a finger at all but a claw, a dragon’s claw. Nobody but Rosalind and her mother are aware of her deformity – she always wears golden gloves to hide it. If anyone finds out, she will no longer be a princess – will perhaps be thought of as a witch and killed. It was prophesied by none other than Merlin that she will be the one to bring peace to the island – but how can that happen.

To make matters worse, the island is under periodic attacks by a dragon, who has no compunction about eating humans. When Rosalind is captured by the dragon, there is no real hope that she can survive. But there is that prophesy – and can Merlin be wrong?

I really enjoyed Dragon’s Keep. Janet Lee Carey is a wonderful writer and this novel has a lot of depth to it. I did find that I did have to pay attention to what I was reading – I couldn’t simply fly through the novel because I got lost a couple of times. I read the book during a read-a-thon at school and it was easy to get distracted by people who came into the media center needing my help. I don’t think this is necessarily a good book for people who don’t like fantasy, but if you do love fantasy novels, this would be a good choice.

The copy of Dragon's Keep that I used for this review was checked out from my media center.

Sisters Grimm: The Everafter War

2009-10-19T07:21:00.003-04:00

The Everafter War

Michael Buckley

I thought this was supposed to be the last of the Sisters Grimm series, and as much as I've enjoyed the series, I've been ready for it to end. Now it looks as though there will be at least 2 additional books. In this one, we find out who the Master is. Sabrina's and Daphne's parents are awakened but all in all this is a darker book than some of the others.

I purchased the copy of the book that I reviewed.

Whether to blog

2009-10-02T11:47:00.002-04:00

I've really been struggling with blogging recently. Our county, like many counties in North Carolina, is in a severe budget crunch. One of the cuts they made was the media assistants' positions. I now have my full-time job to do, and my assistant's full-time job to do. It's been hard, and I know that I need to cut some of the things I do because I simply don't have time to do it all.

I have been reading much less than usual -- I'm exhausted by the time I get home each day and right now the tv is more appealing. I thought I'd put the blog on hold until summer when I have a break from school. But today at lunch I was reading some of the blogs I used to have time to read daily and I realized how much I love being a part of this community. I think book bloggers serve an important role -- I have certainly learned about books I would have never heard of without them, books that I've passed on to teachers and students at my school.

So I think I'll continue to try. I may only talk about a couple of books a month (hopefully I won't skip any more months the way I skipped September).

Just Ella

2009-08-28T10:01:00.002-04:00

Just Ella

Margaret Peterson Haddix

I love fairy tale novels and I love Margaret Peterson Haddix, but I have to confess that this book took me a month to read.

Just Ella is the story of what happened to Cinderella after Prince Charming proposes. Ella finds herself in the castle, learning to be a gentlewoman, and hating every minute of it. She’s not allowed to do anything but needlework (she’s not even allowed to light her own fire) and she is bored to tears. When she finally decides that she doesn’t love the prince and she tells him that she’s not going to marry him. The prince isn’t very smart (a servant says, “He wouldn’t know how to get out of bed in the morning if he didn’t have advisers telling him which foot to put on the floor first.”) but all heck breaks loose when he realizes that she’s serious. He ties Ella up and puts her in the dungeon until she relents. Ella, however, is determined not to give in, even if her escape route is dangerous, and more than a little smelly.

I found the first part of the book tedious, but once Ella ends up in the dungeon, I finished it in one setting. It’s on the N.C. Battle of the Books list for this year and I think most of my students will enjoy it.

If I Stay

2009-07-06T13:56:00.002-04:00

If I Stay
Gayle Forman

It was such an easy decision – a snow day – a trip out with the family to visit friends. A decision that ends three lives and puts the fourth in jeopardy. Mia loves being with her family, they are close-knit – her parents are what people my age would call “cool.” But on this snowy day, there is an accident. Somehow Mia’s consciousness is thrown from her body and she wanders around the accident site, noticing the bodies of both her parents. She cannot find her brother Teddy, but after the rescue workers arrive they mention him so she thinks he will be ok.

Mia travels along with her body, first to the local hospital and then to the Trauma Center in Portland. Although she is aware that her parents are dead, she is dispassionate about it, and disconnected from what’s going on around her. Eventually she becomes aware of the fact that Teddy too is dead and although her grandparents and friends are still alive and desperately want her to get better, Mia becomes aware that whether she lives or dies is her choice. Fairly unemotional at first, as it gets closer and closer to her having to make a decision, she becomes more aware of the ramifications of the actions.

In the quiet corner of the ICU I start to really think about the bitter things I’ve managed to ignore so fare today. What would it be like if I stay? What would it feel like to wake up an orphan? To never smell Dad smoke a pipe? To never stand next to Mom quietly talking as we do the dishes? To never read Teddy another chapter of Harry Potter? To stay without them? I’m not sure this is a world I belong in anymore. I’m not sure that I want to wake up.

Mia has to decide – does she want to stay, when those who matter most have already gone?

This was a wonderful afternoon read. It’s very different emotionally from the other tear-jerker I read this weekend, Would You, but I really liked it. Most review sources have it recommended for high school and I would agree with that assessment, although I think mature eighth graders would enjoy it.

Would You?

2009-07-05T19:57:00.001-04:00

Would You
Marthe Jocelyn

It’s just a normal summer – Claire’s last summer before she goes away to college. Her sister Natalie is spending her days working as a lifeguard at the pool, and her nights hanging out with her friends. Natalie’s isn’t happy about Claire’s imminent departure (“We’ve been sharing a room since I was born. How can our life be reduced to occasional weekends?”) And then in one moment, her world changes. She arrives homes one evening to find out that Claire has been hit by a car. She’s in a coma, and nobody knows if she will be ok.

It must be first understood that I rarely cry while reading a book, so the tears rushing down my cheeks were a shock. Natalie’s love for Claire and her knowledge that her life has been changed forever just broke my heart. I must say that I really appreciated that this was not a lesson book. Claire’s accident is just that – an accident and was not caused by drinking or drugs, or anything else could be used to preach to teenagers. Because of this, Jocelyn can spend her time focusing on the effects the accident has on Claire’s family and the choices they have to make. I recommend this one to anybody who loves tear jerkers.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth

2009-07-04T17:44:00.001-04:00

The Forest of Hands and Teeth
Carrie Ryan

Mary and all those who live in her village are surrounded by the forest. Not any forest but the Forest of Hands and Teeth. The forest out of which the Unconsecrated relentlessly attack the fence that surrounds the village, the fence that protects the villagers. Mary’s father has disappeared, and it is assumed that he was bitten, that he has now become one of the Unconsecrated. Mary’s mother waits by the fence, determined that her husband will return to her, but he doesn’t, and one day she gets too close and gets bitten. She is given a choice – be killed immediately or to become one of the Unconsecrated and be cast out of the village. Because she hopes that she will find her husband, she chooses the latter, and Mary, who cannot bear to leave her until the end, has to watch her mother die, knowing she will turn into a horrible, flesh-eating monster.

Mary’s brother is so upset by what has happened that he turns against her and tells her to join the Sisterhood, a group of unmarried women who live in the Cathedral, direct the villagers in their faith in God, and hold many of the secrets behind what has happened to the village. Mary has lost her faith in God, but she has no choice but to go to the Sisters. As part of her duties, she nurses the fiancé of her best friend and falls in love with him. As it is obvious to the head Sister that Mary doesn’t belong among them, eventually Mary is offered the chance to marry – not to the man she loves but to his brother. Mary is torn, she feels as though she has no good option, but before any wedding occurs, the village is attacked and the fence is breached. Mary and just six others escape while the rest of the village is destroyed by the Unconsecrated. Now they must follow a narrow path surrounded by a fence, trying to find a place where they can be safe.

It is obvious from the first sentence that Carrie Ryan is a wonderful writer, and The Forest of Hands and Teeth is a hauntingly beautiful book. It is also dark and sad but I absolutely could not put it down. It is the first book in a trilogy, and it will be difficult to wait until spring when the next volume is available.

I do have one question for the author. This book is set on Earth in the future after some sort of apocalyptic event that has caused the zombies to be created. Because there is an old cathedral in the village and there was once an old vineyard there, I would have guessed that the book is set somewhere in Europe, perhaps in France. However, at one point Mary finds an old page from The New York Times, implying that the setting is the former United States. I would love to know where she planned for the book to take place.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth is on the middle school portion of the North Carolina Young Adult Book Award 2009 – 2010 list.

Zombies

2009-07-03T19:13:00.000-04:00

Zombies
Stephen Krensky
School library copy

I have really mixed emotions about this book, so I debated about whether or not to review it. I decided to go head and write the review because it does allow me to address some issues I have with much of the high interest nonfiction that is available.

I chose to read Zombies because, although I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer and can tell you a lot about vampires, I know next to nothing about zombies. Since two of the books nominated for the middle school portion of the North Carolina Young Adult Book Awards deal with zombies (The Forest of Hands and Teeth and Zombie Blondes), I decided to learn a little about the creatures before I tackled these books. And I must say that I did learn a few things about zombies, things that will enable me to talk about them in a reasonably coherent fashion when I’m doing monster booktalks this October.

As I stated earlier, I did have issues with several aspects of this book. First of all, it really isn’t very well written. I understand that the reading level is fairly low (grade 5.7 according to the publisher’s website) but does easy-to-read have to mean poorly written? Many of the sentences are short and choppy and I don’t think the book as a whole flows very well.

The author also includes a section that summarizes a number of books and movies that have zombies. Whereas some of the books he mentions are appropriate for the target age range (grades 4-7), others were written with more of an older young adult to adult audience (such as Frank Herbert’s Dune series and Piers Anthony’s Xanth series). Also, many of the movies that mentions (for example, Dawn of the Dead, Shaun of the Dead, and 28 Days Later) are R-rated and thus inappropriate for the book’s age range.

My final issue with the book is one that is true for many of the high interest books that are available today. I don’t care for the book’s page layout – I find it confusing. Miscellaneous fact boxes and picture captions that don’t directly deal with the topic on the page interrupt the narrative. For example, in the introduction to voodoo section, there is a picture of a man, presumably in Haiti, riding a pony. The caption reads, “Haiti was once covered by a lush, tropical rain forest. European settlers cut most of the trees to make way for farms.” Now what does that have to do with voodoo or zombies?

Will I booktalk this book? Probably, because it is one of only two nonfiction books I have about zombies. Will students like it? Yes, because they will be interested in the topic. Would I purchase it again now that I have read it? Honestly, I don’t know. It does fill a niche in my library, but I just wish it were a better book.

Elephant Run

2009-07-02T11:02:00.002-04:00

Elephant Run
Roland Smith
Copy from school library

After the London apartment in which Nick Freestone lives with his mother and stepfather is bombed during World War II, Nick is sent to live with his father in Burma. Unfortunately, by the time he arrives at his father’s teak plantation, it is obvious that the Japanese are going to take over the country. Nick’s father is determined to get Nick out of the country and to safety in Australia, but before that can happen, the Japanese arrive and take everyone captive. Nick’s father is sent to a work camp, along with the most trusted of his mahouts (men who train and work with the elephants on the plantation). Nick is left to be a servant to the Japanese occupiers. He is determined to escape and to rescue his father. A Burmese girl, Mya, is left an orphan when her father is murdered by the Japanese and she also wants to escape and rescue her brother, one of the mahouts now forced to work on a railroad being built by the Japanese. Nick and Mya do have some help – Mya’s great-grandfather who just might be able to make the attempt a success.

Like all of Roland Smith’s books, Elephant Run is action-packed. I do have a few quibbles about it, but I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The quibbles: First, Smith focuses on the points of view of two characters, Nick and Mya, but there were times that I had trouble moving from one point of view to the other. My second quibble deals with the way Smith teaches the reader about the region and the time period. It is obvious that most of his readers will come to this book with little knowledge of Burma, the Japanese invasion of the country, and of elephant training so Smith has a lot of information to get across. It does feel like in certain places it’s almost as if he’s saying, “OK, here’s a little lesson for you about . . .” and after a paragraph or so then proceeds with the narrative.

Despite these quibbles, I was really drawn to the book. The almost non-stop action helped, as did my interest World War II. I also really liked the characters and cheered for them as they faced such terrible odds in their attempt to escape and free their family members. I loved the sections with the elephants and enjoyed learning about them. I think this will be a great book for my middle school boys – especially those in 7th grade who study Asia.

Flush

2009-07-01T13:26:00.002-04:00

Flush
Carl Hiaasen
Copy from the school library

Noah Underwood’s father, Paine, has gotten into trouble before but this time takes the cake. Paine is certain that the owner of a floating casino is flushing his toilets directly into the water, polluting the marina and nearby beaches. He cannot prove anything because the owner, Dusty Muleman, seems to have an inside source that tips him off whenever the Coast Guard is about to have an unannounced inspection. Paine decides to take matters into his own hands by sinking the casino. He’s promptly arrested and it isn’t long before the boat has been raised and the casino is back in business. It’s now up to Noah and his little sister Abbey to prove that Dusty’s actions are threatening the beaches.

I really enjoyed this book. Hiaasen has a strong environmental message, but his books never seem overly preachy, partly because he injects a lot of humor in them. I also really liked the characters in Flush. I wouldn’t say that his characters have a lot of depth, but they’re quirky and fun. This is a title on the 2009 -2010 Battle of the Books list and I think the students at my school are going to enjoy it.

Darkside

2009-06-29T19:15:00.003-04:00

Darkside
Tom Becker

Jonathan Starling has not had an easy life. He’s never known his mother, and his father is frequently ill, suffering from what he calls the Darkening. Jonathan has basically raised himself, with the help of a friendly neighbor. So when his father yet again is placed in a mental hospital in London, Jonathan see an all-familiar pattern restarting. But while he’s visiting his father, the man in the next room is murdered and Jonathan finds a mysterious dagger in the room. All of a sudden people are chasing him and Jonathan learns that there is another, untalked about part of London. A part where more than 100 years ago the worst of the worst were condemned to live. Jonathan must travel to Darkside in order to save himself and his father.

I must admit to having a hard time getting in to this book. I just never really connected with the characters. I read a review of it quite some time ago and was really excited when it came in to my library, but it never really clicked for me. I do wonder how the next book in the series will be – Becker will not have to spend so much time setting up his two worlds and can concentrate on character development.

To Review or Not to Review

2009-06-22T15:10:00.001-04:00

As a general rule, I try to write a review of most of the young adult literature I read. The exceptions to this rule have been when I’m extremely busy with work or if I really hated the book. Recently, there was a post at Read Roger that discussed whether or not bloggers should post negative reviews. I thought both the post and the many comments (62 at this point) were interesting. I honestly didn’t think I had much to add to the conversation – I have received a grand total of one ARC and one other book from a publisher during the time I’ve been blogging – and so I don’t feel any obligation to review every book I’ve read or to give a positive review to every book I blog about.

However, as one commentator in Read Roger’s blog discussed, one of the reasons I don’t tend to do negative reviews is that I get to choose what I read and I tend to only choose that which I think I’ll like. Two exceptions to this rule are books on North Carolina’s Battle of the Books List and the NCSLMA YA Book Award list. I feel like it’s my job to read these books so I try to through them in the summer (This is why I suffered through White Fang a couple of weeks ago).

Today I hit a book I didn’t care for but haven’t decided whether or not to review it. I read it because I thought it would make a good booktalk for my eighth graders, and I do think that many of my girls will enjoy it. I, however, found it to be shallow and silly. I’m just not sure what to say about it if I choose to review it.

Reading Above Grade Level and Rereading

2009-06-19T09:32:00.000-04:00

This is primarily a blog containing book reviews of children’s and young adult titles. It’s been pretty sporadic over the years – that just reflects my life with two children, an amazing husband, and a job that I love but tries to drown me occasionally. When I have time, I am a heavy ready of other blogs written around the Kidlitosphere. Two different sets of articles have interested me recently and rather than reply to everyone’s blog, I thought I’d just jot down some notes here.

I’ve been a school librarian for twenty years. All but one of those years has been in the same middle school. When I meet parents, I am assured that it’s all-important for their children to be readers, but many freely admit that their kids don’t like reading. So I get these children at the beginning of puberty when school, and especially books are the least important things in their minds and am expected to magically instill in them a love fore reading – something they didn’t acquire during the preschool or elementary school years, the best time for children to fall in love with books. (Don’t get me wrong – I also get a fair amount of children who love to read and I just have to point them to the shelves).

So there are a number of things I do to try and get my non-readers to pick up a book and at least give it a try. Over the past few years, I’ve built up my graphic novel collection to a reasonable level (it would be higher but my graphic novels are by far my most stolen items). When I booktalk I try to include nonfiction titles that will appeal to my students – especially the boys (if it’s gross, I want to read it and talk about it). I try to read a variety of books so I can find something, anything that might appeal to that reluctant reader. This year I’m going to try book speed-dating and see how that works. I’m also thinking of getting at least one eighth grade class to participate in a Good Reads group online.

So what are the barriers to this (besides the kid’s saying “I hate to read” and rolling their eyes at everything you suggest)? One huge barrier is teachers saying that a child must read a book on their reading level. In public schools the almighty test score takes president over everything else, and if we are not challenging our students, exposing them to enough rigorous work, we are not doing our jobs. To hell with actually teaching them – we must raise their test scores. So books on grade level (or above grade level) is the answer, according to many. I can preach until my lips fall off that reading below grade level improves fluency and comprehension, but to no avail.

As has been pointed out, many parents want “age-appropriate, higher-level” books. In other words they want books written several grade levels above their children that don’t have strong language, sex, or extreme violence. It’s hard to convince parents that most books written for teenagers are actually about things that teenagers are interested in (and, believe it or not, teens use strong language when they are around each other, and they think about sex a lot). I actually had a parent of a higher-level reader who was horrified by one of the books in my library and she said that she didn’t want her daughter to read any books where boys dated girls. There went two-thirds of my fiction collection. My media center has books appropriate for 6th – 8th graders. I have The Penderwicks and I have Speak. Some of my books are more appropriate for immature sixth graders, and some are most appropriate for very mature eighth graders. In my twenty years of experience, I have discovered that children have an innate ability to pick out what’s appropriate for them. I also discuss during their first library check-out each year that if they don’t feel comfortable with a book, they can always return the book and check out something else. I stress that I have books for many different types of readers and they have to find what they are most comfortable with.

I also get complaints from teachers and parents about children rereading the same books over and over again. Again, I tell them that rereading improves fluency and comprehension, but many times I cannot convince parents of this. I am an avid re-reader. Rereading brings me comfort when I’m having a bad day and need a book I can count on. I also go back to books whose characters show me the person I want be. I have learned much from Atticus Finch and Marmee and Elizabeth Bennett, among hundreds of other characters. While I couldn’t be perfectly happy only rereading the books in my personal library, I could go for quite some time doing so. Many kids find a book that they want to reread again and again and somehow we think this is bad. It’s funny – we start this when they are toddlers by agreeing to reread the same book night after night (I cannot begin to count how many times I read The Foot Book) but now that they are reading on their own, it’s a bad thing. We have to respect our children’s choices in what they read, whether it’s a book that’s below their level, or one they have read before.

Birmingham, 1963

2009-06-18T20:43:00.004-04:00

Birmingham, 1963
Carole Boston Weatherford

The day I turned ten
Our church was quiet. No meetings, no marches.
Mama left me in Sunday school
With a soft kiss and coins for the offering plate.

With a seemingly simple free verse poem, Carole Boston Weatherford has brought us compelling account of the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church that killed four young girls. Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement and of the aftermath of the bombing illustrate the pages.

This is an incredibly moving book. Even though I read it in five minutes, I found myself going back, re-reading, and carefully studying the photographs. I learned things too – I had no idea that children were so important in the Birmingham marches. I cannot imagine sending either of my daughters out to march in such a volatile situation, yet 2,500 children participated. The notes on the photographs were also informative.

This is going to be a great book to use with students. They are going to connect with both the words and the photographs.

Shift

2009-06-18T09:09:00.002-04:00

Shift
Jennifer Bradbury

It seemed like the perfect idea. Two best friends, fresh from graduating from high school, set out on a cross-country bike trip. They even get their parents to agree to the idea. Then, sixty miles from their destination, the Washington coast, one of the friends disappears. Now the friend that is left has to deal with the questions and demands of the family who is not happy their only son is gone.

Chris is now starting his freshman year at Georgia Tech, and he’s furious with his former best friend Win for abandoning him on the road. Win’s father is rich and powerful and he loves throwing his weight around. He’s even gotten the FBI involved in the case, and Chris finds himself being questioned and being followed. He knows that he didn’t do anything to Win – that Win just took off – but can he get anyone to believe him?

Shift is told in an alternating present-time chapter/flashback chapter format. We see Chris as he’s trying to cope with what he views as his best friend’s betrayal, and we also see who he was before and during the bike trip. I think it’s pretty obvious from the beginning as to why Win disappears, but that didn’t spoil the story at all. I really enjoyed this book, even though it was read in a fit of insomnia in the middle of the night.

Evernight

2009-06-17T08:21:00.002-04:00

Evernight
Claudia Gray

Bianca knows that Evernight isn’t the place for her. Most of the students who attend this ancient boarding school are too beautiful, too poised, too good for everyone else who just happens to be there. While I’ve never read any of the Gossip Girls books, that’s the picture I envisioned. Bianca is there because her parents are teachers and they’ve taken a job at Evernight to try and get Bianca out of her painfully shy shell.

Bianca’s roommate is one of the beautiful ones, but she is at least passably nice to Bianca. Bianca shows more interest in the students who appear to be outcasts. Immediately in the book, Bianca meets a boy named Lucas and falls heads over heels for him. They do go through some pitfalls, but eventually they become a couple. Each of them, however, is harboring a secret and these secrets could destroy both their relationship and the entire Evernight community.

I thought this book was ok. I will read the sequel if I can get my hands on it without having to buy it. I know my eighth graders will like it, but I wouldn’t recommend it for any lower grade levels than eighth.

Fade

2009-06-16T08:10:00.003-04:00

Fade

Lisa McMann

Fade was my reward to myself for finishing White Fang. It took me 7 days to read White Fang – it took me 2 ½ hours to read Fade.

At the end of Wake, Janie accepted a position as an undercover police officer. Her captain had worked with another dream catcher and recognized the importance of having one on the force. Now Janie has been asked to do something quite dangerous – find a potential sexual predator at her school. She immediately suspects her chemistry teacher and there are some really creepy scenes with her flirting with Mr. Durbin and him letting her know he likes it.

In the midst of all of this, things for Janie are getting harder. Recovering from the nightmares other sleeping people have is more difficult. Her eyes are getting bad and she doesn’t know why. The captain has given her some files that might have answers to her questions, if only she has the nerve to open and read them.

Wake and Fade are fun to read. I’d put them as appropriate for 9^th – 10^th grade, not middle school level. I wouldn’t say the mystery in this one was difficult to figure out, but the mystery is just a side story. The real story is the romance between Janie and her boyfriend Cabel and the story behind Janie’s dream catching.

White Fang

2009-06-15T07:13:00.004-04:00

White Fang
Jack London

The first thing I should say is that I’m not going to do a traditional review of White Fang. No summary of the book. But I am going to take the time to talk about how I felt about the book.

I should start out by saying that I didn’t set out with a good attitude towards White Fang. I don’t really like reading animal books, and I don’t care for Jack London. Why read it to begin with? Because it’s on North Carolina’s Battle of the Books list and I’m the coach for my school.

White Fang is divided into five parts – for me the first four parts were pure torture. Jack London is an excellent writer, and I could see how the book would appeal to many (my husband loves it), but where I read 9 books during Mother Reader’s 48 hour challenge, it took me 7 days to get this book read. I will say that I enjoyed the last part so the book ended on a positive note for me.

I was taken aback by the brutality in White Fang. The wolf is horribly beaten on several occasions, and he is forced to participate in dog fights. While I wasn’t necessarily surprised to find these scenes in the book, it was quite painful to read them and they were one of the reasons I could only take the book in small doses.

48 Hour Reading Challenge -- Final Post

2009-06-07T20:51:00.002-04:00

As I said in my opening post, I have wanted to do the 48 hour reading challenge for two years. Two years ago I didn’t have a blog, but I discovered many of the blogs that I read daily through Mother Reader’s challenge. Last year the weekend wasn’t right. This year, it was – thank goodness.

This past month has been one of the most challenging professional months I have had in 20 years of teaching. For various reasons, I was in charge of all end-of-grade testing at my school. I haven’t been able to be a librarian all month, and I have missed it. Being able to spend the weekend doing nothing but reading was incredibly relaxing and just what I needed.

So here are my totals. I read and blogged for 21 hours. I wasn’t great about recording which times were reading and which were blogging but here is what I did:

Friday:
7:15 pm – 10:15 pm

Saturday:
7:45 am – 8:45 am
9:45 am – 10:15 am
10:30 am – 5:00 pm
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
10:10 pm – 10:40 pm

Sunday:
6:00 am – 8:00 am
9:30 am – 11:00 am
1:30 pm – 5:00 pm
5:20 pm – 5:50 pm

In that time I read 9 books:
London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd
Leap of Faith by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Bounce by Natasha Friend
Exodus by Julie Bertagna
Edward's Eyes by Patricia MacLachlan
Huge by Sasha Paley
Wake by Lisa McMann
Safe by Susan Shaw

Reading books in a variety of genres helped me keep the pace up -- something I have to remember for next year. I would also like to increase my total reading and blogging time to about 24 hours next year.

Finally, let me say that the hotel was the way to go. I didn’t worry about laundry or cooking dinner, or really anything except reading. Now the only sad part is I have to wait a whole year before the next 48 hour challenge.

48 Hour Reading Challenge -- Update #9

2009-06-07T20:24:00.002-04:00

Safe
Susan Shaw

Tracy’s mom died when she was three, but she’s always felt her presence with her, keeping her safe. That is, until the unthinkable occurs. On the last day of school in 7th grade, Tracy is kidnapped, raped, and left for dead on the side of the road. Suddenly nothing is safe.

Safe is the story of recovering from a trauma that goes deep in the soul. Tracy turns away from everything she has loved (except her father) – her friends, basketball, taking long hikes. She does find solace in music, discovering a love for the piano, and a talent for composing.

Many will compare this book to Speak, and that’s valid. I think they make good companion books. I didn’t like this one as much as I loved Speak, but then I didn’t expect to – Speak is one of my top ten young adult books and it would take an awful lot to top it. I did really enjoy Safe, though, and I think my upper middle school students will too.

48 Hour Reading Challenge -- Update #8

2009-06-07T16:17:00.002-04:00

My time for reading and blogging is up to 19 ½ hours – I’m almost at my minimum goal of 20 hours. Book #8 is

Wake
Lisa McMann

Janie is seventeen years old and she rarely if ever dreams. She doesn’t need to – she’s too busy being caught up in the dreams of anyone who is sleeping in the same room she’s in. Sound good? It’s not – she’s tired of the “I’m naked and everyone else around me isn’t” dreams and the “I’m falling” dreams, and the inevitable sex dreams, but it’s the nightmares that really get to her, that send her into a paralyzed state.

After a harrowing bus trip in which many of her classmates sleep/have nightmares, Janie is forced to admit her abilities as a dream catcher to a boy who she likes and appears to like her back – a boy that has the worst nightmares she’s ever experienced. But it appears that he is not all that he seems to be and she might have just confided in the someone who’s not worthy of her trust.

This one I really liked. I’ve enjoyed all of the books I’ve read for this challenge, but a couple (at least) were fairly predictable. While I could predict parts of this book’s plot, the premise was quite original and I’m looking forward to reading its sequel, Fade (as soon as I go buy it at the bookstore).

48 Hour Reading Challenge -- Update #7

2009-06-07T14:18:00.004-04:00

I’ve been reading for 17 ½ hours now and have just finished my 7th book. It is:

Huge
Sasha Paley

Wil is being forced to attend Wellness Canyon. Her parents own a number of fitness centers, but Wil overweight and completely opposed to becoming physically fit. If she has to attend “fat camp,” then she is going to gain weight there just to defy her parents.

April has saved up money all year to be able to go to Wellness Canyon. All she wants is to finally be skinny and popular. She’s so excited about her summer that she’s about to burst.

Somehow these two girls end up as roommates. One determined to succeed; the other determined to fail. As the back of the book states, “this summer’s going to be about more than just counting calories . . . “

I liked this one. Nothing about it is ground-breaking but I found it to be an enjoyable book. In most ways it was predictable (including having the popular people turn out to be mean and hateful) but I think it makes for an excellent summer read.

48 Hour Reading Challenge -- Update #6

2009-06-07T08:10:00.002-04:00

I've now been reading and blogging for 15 1/2 hours. Book #6 was short It was:

Edward's Eyes
Patricia MacLachlan

Tear-jerker. Several hankies worth.

Edward’s Eyes is told from the viewpoint of Edward’s brother Jake. The moment Jake’s parents bring Edward home from the hospital, they put him in Jake’s arms and from then on the two have a special bond. Edward’s eyes are “the dark mud-blue of the night sky, but there are surprising little flecks of gold in them.” Jake loves those eyes.

It’s obvious from the beginning that this is going to be a sad story. MacLachlan is a beautiful writer, and this book does not disappoint.

48 Hour Reading Challenge -- Update #5

2009-06-07T07:00:00.003-04:00

So far I've spent 14 1/2 hours reading and blogging. I've finished my 5th book (this one really took me a while to get read) and am getting ready to start another one. Here's number five:

Exodus
Julie Bertagna

It is the year 2100 and the world as we know it has ended. The polar ice caps have melted and the ocean has “drowned” almost all land. Mara and her family live with a few other villagers on Wing – a small set of islands in what used to be Scotland (at least I assumed it was Scotland). Each year there are months of horrific storms and the islands get smaller. Before long the island will be completely consumed by the ocean.

Fifteen year-old Mara wants to save everyone, and she manages to persuade them to board their fishing boats and leave Wing in search of a city built on an ocean – a city that only she has seen through her cyberwizz, a device that allows to her roam about in a type of internet. In the confusion of leaving, Mara doesn’t make it on to her family’s boat, and when they finally make it to New Mungo, she learns that her family has all drowned when their boat overturned. New Munto itself isn’t the haven she is looking for. The city doesn’t take in refugees, it leaves them to starve and die of disease while periodically raiding the boats for healthy young people it can use as slaves. Again Mara sets off to save a people, this time from slavery and then to find a world where they can all live in peace.

I honestly don’t know how I feel about this one. It’s pretty bleak, although it does end with some hope. It’s the first in a trilogy, and I may try to read the next one just to see what happens.

48 Hour Reading Challenge -- update #4

2009-06-06T16:52:00.002-04:00

Four books down now. I must say this is a lot of fun. I've got a little more reading in me tonight, but then it will be time to enjoy my 20th anniversary. My goal before it's all over with is to get 20 hours in. Right now I'm sitting at 10 hours of reading and blogging. Here's the latest:

Bounce

Natasha Friend

Evyn's life is torn apart when her father, Birdie, announces that he is getting married and Evyn, her brother Mackey are moving from Maine to Boston. Birdie's fiance has six kids and Evyn is rapidly thrust in to a large family. Needless to say, Evyn is less than thrilled with all of these changes. She has to share a room with two of her new stepsisters, and she's enrolled in a private all-girls' school where she has to undergo the typical mean-girls that many thirteens year-olds suffer through.. Everybody but Evyn seems to be settling in well to their new lives. Mackey has gotten the lead in his high school musical, and Birdie gets along well with all of his new stepchildren. Evyn, who has always yearned for her mother (she died when Evyn was 1), finds it particularly difficult to accept this new life. And then Birdie and his new wife announce that they are going to have a baby. I thought this was a decent book. It does cover the same ground that many other books have been written about, but it will appeal to my middle schoolers. I think it will be perfect to booktalk to my 7th graders.

48 Hour Reading Challenge -- update #2

2009-06-06T14:39:00.003-04:00

I've now finished book 3. My total reading/blogging time so far is about 8 1/2 hours. Book three took a while but boy was it worth it. How can I possibly wait until September for the sequel? Book three was:

The Hunger Games

Suzanne Collins

I know just about everybody on the planet has read this book, so I'm not going to spend time I could be reading on a summary of it. Just a few thoughts . . .

I was initially hesitant to read this book, even though everyone who had raved about it. The beginning of it just reminded me too much of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," a short story I read in 8th grade and which I truly hated. The idea that sane people could and would kill other people as a tribute is truly horrifying, much more so than most horror movies around. And I found myself equally disgusted by society of The Hunger Games. In fact, while I found the plot and the characters engrossing, I had a hard time believing that such a society could ever exist. But then I remember that Hitler's Germany was real and I guess anything is possible.

This is not going to be a difficult book to get my middle schoolers to read. In fact, I think that the two copies I have are not going to be enough.

48 Hour Reading Challenge -- update #2

2009-06-06T10:19:00.002-04:00

I've now read for 4 1/2 hours and have finished 2 books. Here is my summary of the 2nd book:

Leap of Faith

Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

I loved this book. Simply loved it. It's the story of Abigail, a girl who has all of sudden been kicked out of school for stabbing a boy. In desperation her parents send her to a Catholic, even though they are firm non-believers. Abigail is full of anger at everyone, but most especially her parents who are completely disconnected from her and the bullying she has been suffering at school. They listen to nothing she says. When she wants to take art as her elective, they say no, and so she ends up in drama.

Everyone in the school, even non-Catholics, must attend Mass on Wednesdays. Abigail is at first confused at what's going on, but she likes the feeling of peace she gets at Mass. She doesn't believe in God, but she feels a pull to become Catholic. Part of this is because she's so mad at her parents and she knows they won't like it, but there is also something more.

Abigail also realizes how much she loves drama class. She performs in the Christmas play (which her parents are too busy to attend) and gets the lead role in the spring play. But as she learns her part, and as she goes to classes to become a Catholic, she realizes that a leap of faith is not just a saying, and somewhere wrapped in everything is her need to learn to forgive

48 hour Reading Challenge -- update #1

2009-06-05T21:41:00.003-04:00

I've finished my first book. Here it is:

London Eye Mystery

Siobhan Dowd

Salim has disappeared in what seems to be an impossible manner. While his two cousins wait below, he has gone aboard the London Eye, been sealed in, and then not come out when the ride is over. Nobody can attest to his whereabouts, and his mother is, quite naturally, hysterical. The police are called in but they cannot figure out what’s happened either.

Enter Salim’s two cousins, Ted and Kat. They set out to find out what has happened to their cousin. Has he been kidnapped or has he run away? How did he manage to get off the London Eye without anyone else noticing?

This was an interesting mystery – I would give it 3.5 stars out of 5. It’s told from the viewpoint of Ted who quite obviously has Asperger’s Syndrome. He compares his mind to a computer’s and while he obviously struggles in many social arenas, he is the perfect person to figure out what has happened to his cousin.

48 Hour Reading Challenge -- I'm starting

2009-06-05T19:03:00.002-04:00

Let me start off this challenge by stating publicly how wonderful my husband is. You see, two weeks ago was our 29th wedding anniversary. I am in charge of all End of Grade tests in my school. It's a big deal. I've had zero life outside of school since May 1. My wonderful husband knew how badly I wanted to participate in the Reading Challenge so he suggested we get a hotel room at our favorite hotel and read during the weekend. I needed to relax, and this is the perfect way to do it. I repeat, my husband is wonderful.

I am having one problem, however. My assistant has strep throat, and my throat is getting a little scratchy. I'm just hoping it's sympathetic pains.

I think I'll start off the challenge by reading The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd. I'm starting now, at 7:15 p.m.

The Missing Girl

2009-06-02T19:56:00.002-04:00

The Missing Girl

Norma Fox Mazer

There are five Herber girls – Beauty, Mim, Stevie, Fancy, and Autumn. They range in age from 11 to 17. Each has very different personalities from the other, but each has distinct weaknesses. And they are all being watched.

The girls are poor – their father has been in an accident and has not recovered. In many was, they are surviving on their own, even though their parents are in the house. But the parents have made a wrenching decision. They are going to “lend” their middle child, Stevie, to an aunt. Stevie can help the aunt at her house, and in return the aunt will feed and clothe Stevie. The girls are most unhappy about this decision but are helpless to do anything about it, until the unthinkable occurs.

Woven throughout the story are sections of the girls being watched. It is quite obvious from the beginning that he wants one of the girls for evil purposes. When the opportunity finally comes for him to take one, he seizes it. From here the story becomes that of a family struggling with the loss of a child, and the child, desperately trying to get home.

I had been quite eager to read this book. In many ways it didn’t disappoint. Mazer’s depiction of the kidnapper is truly creepy. I never, however, felt as much connection to the girls as I wanted – they just felt distant to me.

One other point – School Library Journal recommended this book for grades 7 – up. I cannot agree. To me this is a high school book, and that’s where I’ll send my copy of it.

MotherReader: The Fourth Annual 48 Hour Book Challenge

2009-05-31T18:35:00.001-04:00

Two years ago I was reading an article about blogs written by Liz Burns in School Library Journal. I decided that I needed to explore the blogs she recommended and just happened to do it the weekend a reading challenge was taking place. It seemed as though every blog I was looking at was participating in this challenge, and I wanted to play too! There were two problems: I didn't have a blog, and the challenge had already started.

Last year I had too many conflicts. This year? Conflicts, but I'm going to work around them. My sweet wonderful husband has booked us a hotel room for two days where I can read and blog to my heart's content. I still have a few things I'll have to do, and I've never been one to go without sleep, but I'm going to see exactly how many books I can get read in a 48 hour period, and I cannot wait!

MotherReader: The Fourth Annual 48 Hour Book Challenge

Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life

2009-05-31T18:12:00.004-04:00

Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life

Wendy Mass

When Jeremy Fink was 8 years old, his father died in an automobile accident. To many this was not a surprise. After all, a fortune-teller had predicted his death by the age of 40 and he was 39 when he died. Jeremy is now almost 13 and he has never stopped missing his dad. One day he and his best friend Lizzy are hanging out on the steps of their apartment building when the mailman delivers a package addressed to his mother. Beset with curiosity, they open the package to discover a letter and a strange, locked wooden box engraved with the words "THE MEANING OF LIFE: FOR JEREMY FINK TO OPEN ON HIS 13TH BIRTHDAY." The letter explains that the box was entrusted to a lawyer until Jeremy turned 13, but unfortunately the lawyer had lost the keys. Jeremy and Lizzy soon discover that the keys to the box will be unique and the box cannot possibly be opened without them. So the adventure begins as they search for some keys that might fit. Throughout the summer they will almost get arrested, they will turn long-lost items to their owners, and they might just find out the meaning of life. I really enjoyed this one. It's got adventure, but most of all it has heart. The ending was neat, but oh so satisfying. I think Jeremy Fink will appeal to many students in my school.

A Wonderful Re-Read

2009-04-29T18:51:00.002-04:00

I love to re-read books but I don't often have the time to re-read young adult or children's novels -- there are just so many on my to-read shelf that I can't justify re-reading them. One exception, however, is when I have to read books on the North Carolina Battle of the Books list. These books I read to help prepare my students for competition, so I must be very familiar with them.

Last fall I submitted The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt as a book to be considered for the 2009-2010 list. I didn't have much hope it would make the list -- I had never had a nominated book actually be accepted (and I tried for years with Ender's Game). I was thrilled when the list came out and The Wednesday Wars was included. I've therefore spent the past two days re-reading it and loving it all over again.

How can one pass up the first line: "Of all the kids in the seventh grade at Camillo Junior High, there was one kid that Mrs. Baker hated with heat whiter than the sun. Me."

I must thank Becky of Becky's Book Review for bringing the book to my attention two summers ago. Her review made me rush to order it. If you haven't read any of her blog entries, you should -- she reads like crazy and I must say I agree with most of her reviews.

If you haven't read The Wednesday Wars yet -- go out to your nearest library and get it immediately. It won a Newbery Honor, for heaven's sake!

Wildwood Dancing

2009-04-27T17:51:00.003-04:00

Wildwood Dancing

Juliet Marillier

Surely you’ve heard the story before. Widower is struggling to make ends meet. He’s ill, and he has a number of daughters to take care of. He goes away to get better and sell his goods, leaving the two oldest daughters in charge. Unfortunately, there is an evil cousin who wants everything, including the second daughter’s hand in marriage.

So, you say, “I’ve read this, or something similar to it and so I can skip it.” Let me just tell you, you’d me making a horrible mistake. Wildwood Dancing is a wonderfully written story incorporating several popular fairy tales – and it has vampires! Actually they are called Night People, but we would associate them with the vampire myth.

Jena is the second daughter. She considers herself plain, especially when compared to her beautiful older sister Tati. Jena and her four sisters have a secret. Each month on the full moon, they open a secret portal and cross into the Wildwood to dance with all the magical creatures that inhabit this other world. The sisters follow explicit rules while in the Wildwood because although they love their journeys, they know they are not without danger.

In the real world, Jena’s family is struggling. Her father has left to regain his health, and her cousin is determined to take over. In the land of Transylvania of the Middle Ages, the opinion of women isn’t valued, and the suspicions of the people are great. Jena has much to fight against if her world is not to be destroyed.

As it should be obvious, I loved this book. I stayed up an hour past my bedtime to read it, and that just doesn’t happen on a school night (and I paid for it today!). If you love fairy tales, you must read Wildwood Dancing. (And I didn’t even mention the frog who you’ll love more than Kermit!)

The Truth About My Bat Mitzvah

2009-04-18T07:36:00.002-04:00

The Truth About My Bat Mitzvah
Nora Raleigh Baskin

When I picked up this book, I thought it would be about a twelve-year old girl trying to decide whether or not she wanted to have a Bat Mitzvah. It was more about a young girl who was deeply grieving over her grandmother's death. Caroline's mother is Jewish and her father is Christian and Caroline doesn't know what she is. Besides a token celebration of Hanukkah and Christmas, she has grown up religious at all. When her grandfather gives her the Star of David necklace that belonged to her grandmother, Caroline is thrown for a loop. Does she want to be Jewish? Her best friend is busy planning her Bat Mitzvah -- does Caroline want one too?

For the most part I liked this book. My one complaint is that I thought it was too short. I wanted Baskin to delve more deeply into Caroline's exploration of her heritage and her faith.

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

2009-02-23T19:36:00.003-05:00

Unwind
Neal Shusterman
2008

Let me start off by stating that I love dystopian novels. I had been looking forward to reading Unwind since I first heard about it, and it was one of my first reads when my book order came in.

In the future (mid to late 21st century) abortion is no longer allowed. Instead, unwanted children are "unwound" between the ages of 13 and 18. The law states that as long as 99.44% of the body is transplanted into other people's bodies, the children who are unwound are not dead, they are just living their lives differently. Unwind follows the paths of three children who have all been classified as unwinds. Connor is the classic "bad kid" whose parents no longer know what to do him; Risa has grown up in an orphanage that can no longer afford to keep her; and Lev has known since birth that as the tenth child of a very religious family, he is to be tithed to an unwind facility. All three end up together, literally running for their lives as they try to escape a truly gruesome fate.

As I've said, I love dystopian novels, and I've read a lot of them. One of the things I particularly enjoyed about this one is that I never saw where it was going -- it constantly surprised me. Like many dystopian novels, this one makes a lot of commentary on today's society. I think this would make a great book club book -- lots of things to discuss and think about.

Artichoke's Heart by Susanne Supplee

2009-02-17T06:27:00.002-05:00

Artichoke's Heart
Suzanne Supplee

I had marked Artichoke's Heart for purchase several months ago when I read the reviews of several respected bloggers. I must say they were all right -- this is a wonderful book that is about so much more than what you weigh.

Rosemary is an only child. Her mother was seventeen when she was born and she's never known her father. Her mother was determined to succeed despite having a child at a young age and she had developed and extremely bust hair and nail salon. In fact, Rose immersed herself so deeply in the store that in many ways Rosemary has felt like she's second place and she compensates by eating, and eating a lot. Now she's fifteen and has ballooned to 200 pounds and hates herself. Her mom and her Aunt Mary are on her case constantly to lose weight -- they give her a treadmill for Christmas -- but she just wants to make love to Mr. Hershey, Mr. Reeses, and Mr. M&M. It's not that Rosemary doesn't know that it takes to lose weight, she just can't find the will to start and stay on a diet.

And then comes Kyle -- a boy who appears to be interested in her no matter what she weighs. Rosemary now has the motivation and she manages to start to take off the pounds. She also makes friends with Kay-Kay, a thin girl who has her own set of problems.

This is not a simple book about a girl who wants to lose weight -- it's about a girl who in the midst of a family crisis (which I haven't mentioned but plays an important part in the book) learns to love herself

My Favorite Day of the Year

2008-12-16T19:33:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was by far my favorite day of the year. Why? Because it's the day that my big book order arrived. For those not familiar with school budgets, the process for spending money is to beg and then spend it as quickly as you can before it's taken away. I'm actually very lucky because my principal is really good about giving me money every year. Unfortunately that situation is proving to be the exeption for many school librarians.

So the book ordered arrived and I' ve been slowly unpacking the boxes. There are tons of books that I've read about in blogs and have been aching to read. I'm just not sure where to start. These are the books I'm debating about right now (with about 1/2 of the boxes unpacket):

Unwind by Shusterman
Missing Girl by Mazer
Lock and Key by Dessen
Beastly by Flinn
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by Lockhart

These are only a few of the fiction books I've gotten in but right now they are top of what I want to read. The problem is that of the new books, I probably would love to read about 250 or so of them and there's no way, NO Way I can do that -- I have at least 50 books I've bought but haven't yet read and probably another 20 sitting behind my desk at school. It's a good problem to have, this too much to read, but it's overwhelming too.

The Silver Cup

2008-12-12T16:27:00.003-05:00

The Silver Cup
Constance Leeds
2007

Set in the year 1095 in Medieval Germany, The Silver Cup is the story of Anna. Anna lives with her father Gunter who is a trader and travels to nearby towns to trade his goods. Anna’s life is not easy – her mother died when she was young and even as a child she does the work of a woman. To make matters worse, her aunt who lives next door looks down upon her and does anything she can to make Anna’s life miserable. Although Anna is close to her cousin Lukas, she feels like an outcast.

One day Anna accompanies her father to the nearby city of Worms where he conducts business with a Jewish man. Anna is both fascinated and horrified by the Jews – she like all the Christians around her has been brought up to believe that Jews are born with tails and horns and can never be forgiven for murdering Christ.

In the world outside Anna’s small village, the Pope has called for a crusade and many (including Anna’s cousin Martin) are eager to go. Unfortunately, the horrible Count Emich has been gathering troops under the guise of taking them on crusade but in reality he’s using the opportunity to rape, murder, and pillage all the Jews in the various towns he encounters.

Anna and her father arrive in Worms the day after Count Emich has left. What they find leaves them vomiting in the streets from the sheer horror. Anna does find one survivor – a girl named Leah – and she insists on bringing her home, even though it will bring problems and she will become even a greater outcast.

I must say I really liked this book. It gave me a really good feel for life in Germany during this time period. I enjoyed the characters and felt that they were well rounded and believable. The pages in Worms where Anna and her father witness the results of the slaughter of the Jews are truly wrenching and yet not inappropriate for most middle school students. This will be a great addition to my historical fiction collection.

Do Not Pass Go

2008-12-06T13:44:00.002-05:00

Do Not Pass Go
Kirkpatrick Hill

Deet doesn’t know how well he has it. After all, his family is poor, his parents are irresponsible and unorganized, and he feels like he’s the only one in the family who has it all together. He works school, he’s organized to the point of being anal retentive, and he helps take care of his sisters.

Then the unimaginable happens. Deet’s father is arrested for using drugs. His dad has been working two jobs and he’s been caught taking drugs to stay awake during his night job. He’s now in jail, awaiting a trial and sentencing. Deet’s life has taken a complete shift. At first he’s embarrassed and ashamed that his father would do anything so stupid, and then he’s scared for him – after all jail can be a pretty horrible place. His mother, who at the beginning of the book comes across as completely irresponsible, changes immediately. She gets a job in order to have money coming in to the family and she forces herself to go to the jail to visit he husband. Deet too visits his father and begins to learn that there are all types of people there. While all the prisoners had made some sort of mistake, they were certainly not all bad people. He also learns that the ways that people react to their family members being in jail can differ greatly. He also begins to make friends, which is something he’d never really allowed himself to do before.

On the whole I liked this book, but I do feel it has it flaws. Hill sets out to show that lots of different types of people make mistakes and end up in jail and that “Jail wasn’t the end of the world,” but he’s a bit heavy-handed in his approach. I do think, however, that readers with family and friends in jail might get some comfort from this book.

The other issue I have with it has to do with religion. Deet is an atheist. I don’t have a problem with that – I think it’s important that many different religious viewpoints are expressed in books. Deet’s grandfather is a unforgiving, mean Christian man who’s convinced that his son is going to hell. It’s the combination of the two that bothers me because Hill seems to be reverting to stereotypes when it comes to religion.

The Compound

2008-11-25T03:10:00.002-05:00

The Compound
S. A. Bodeen

My goodness, what a book! It’s one I’ve been eager to read since I encountered several blog reviews of it. It was a one-day-don’t-put-it-down read.

The worst has happened. Eli is wakened by his father one night and told that nuclear weapons had been fired on the United States. Fortunately, Eli’s father is a billionaire and has prepared for a nuclear event. He has had a shelter prepared for his family and he frantically ushers them into The Compound where they can safely live for the next fifteen years. In all the confusion, however, Eli’s twin brother and his grandmother have been left behind and there’s no opening the door to rescue them.

Fast-forward six years. Eli and his family have lived in relative comfort but know nothing about what is going on above ground – how much, if any, of the world is left. Although Eli’s father had seemingly thought about everything they would need, there have been some failures and it looks as though their food supply will not last the required fifteen years. His father has made some contingency plans for emergencies but nobody wants to even consider falling back on these plans.

Eli was the self-described evil twin before he entered the Compound and he’s so traumatized from losing his brother that he withdraws from the family. He cannot stand skin-to-skin contact with others and he sticks to a steady routine that helps him maintain his distance from them. He does worry about the dwindling food supply and is not happy about the contingency plans. When he discovers that the internet still works, he begins to question his father’s motives. As things become worse, Eli races to save his family before the unthinkable happens.

Revelations

2008-11-19T20:50:00.002-05:00

Revelations: A Blue Blood Novel
Melissa De La Cruz

Revelations is the third book in the Blue Bloods series. In order to review the first two books, let me quote from my review of Blue Bloods (the first novel):

When we think of the term "Blue Bloods" we think of those who are fabulously rich and can trace their wealth back generations. That is what the term means in this book, but it also means so much more. Blue Bloods are vampires -- have been vampires since they were expelled from the Kingdom of Heaven. They want atonement -- to be accepted back into Heaven. Until then they live their lives (or cycles as they are called) using their wealth to bring culture to and do good for others. The Metropolitan Museum of Art? Founded by Blue Bloods. You get the idea. Although there is a theme of reincarnation, the vampires are born human and when they are fifteen, they start changing. Schuyler has just discovered that she is a vampire, not an easy thing for her to accept at first. But worse things are happening. Vampires are supposed to be immortal, but somehow the young teenage vampires are dying and the older vampires seem to be in denial about what's going on. Schuyler is in danger and so she and a couple of her friends set out to figure out who is causing the vampire deaths.

In Revelations, it is painfully obvious who the evil ones are – Silver Bloods. Silver Bloods are vampires who prey on other vampires. Unlike Blue Bloods, Silver Bloods care nothing for atonement – they just want to win the ages-long war they have had with the Blue Bloods. What isn’t obvious is exactly who all the Silver Bloods are and it is that revelation at the end of the book that is shocking and leads one to count the days until the next book is released. From the beginning Schuyler is in danger, but while some of her enemies are obvious (she is, after all, in love with a man who is quite taken), others are (to use a cliché) hiding in plain sight. The climax takes place in Rio de Janeiro and is certainly shocking.

Overall, Revelations is a decent book. It moves quickly and I never guessed the ending. I would say it suffers from being a middle book in a series. It moves the series along, but there’s not a good resolution to any of the plot lines because there are more books to come. I read somewhere that Melissa De La Cruz is planning ten books in the series – I’m not sure her fans will be willing to wait seven more years to a conclusion.

The Right Not to Read (yes, more about summer reading)

2008-08-15T10:32:00.001-04:00

I have loved to read since I was seven my first “chapter book.” As a child I read non-stop – even reading as I walk down the halls at school (occasionally I can still be caught doing that!). I had great plans for this summer – plans to get through 50 – 75 books and catch up on my to-be-read pile.

It didn’t happen. I didn’t come close. Why? Because when it came down to it, I wasn’t in the mood. I’ve been on several vacations. I’ve watched way too much tv (I’ve become hooked on Battlestar Galactica – yes, I am a geek). Now I’m hooked on the Olympics, staying up way past my bedtime and having the tv on every day to make sure I don’t miss anything special.

I have read some, but much of it has been adult murder mysteries and thrillers – genres I don’t review in this blog.

Am I sorry about this lack of reading and blogging? Absolutely not. It’s been a good summer and I’ve enjoyed the things I’ve chosen to do. After all, this is my vacation and I should do with it as I please. And that’s why forced summer reading is wrong. If I, at 43 years old, can do what I want during my summer vacation, why can students do the same thing? This absolutely does not mean that I think kids shouldn’t be reading – I opened up the library at my school several times during the summer in order to encourage summer reading. But I do think it should be voluntary.

Just my 2 cents worth.

My Young Adult Rant

2008-07-20T09:23:00.004-04:00

Margo Rabb’s Aricle “I’m Y.A., and I’m O.K.” in Sunday’s New York Times is the perfect starting place for what I was planning to discuss today. (At some point I’m going to go off in a tangent and it won’t make much sense but it does to me in my semi-warped head).

I can certainly understand the frustration that novelists feel when they think their book isn’t taken as seriously as it should be because the publishers have decided to label it young adult. After all, most teenagers don’t feel as though adults treat them as maturely as they should, so why should their reading material be treated any differently? And as for adults who read young adult books – well they just need to grow up (or at least some in the blogosphere would argue).

I’m a middle school librarian so I get special dispensation for reading young adult materials – it’s for my job. But I must say that even my mom (who was also a librarian) says that she wishes I would read some “serious literary books.” Quite frankly, many of the “adult” books I’ve read recently I’ve only felt so-so about. Last year I tried to read Atonement and simply couldn’t do it. I was miserable so it became the first book I’ve given up in a long time. I will confess to have read a number of adult thrillers and murder mysteries over the past year, and whereas I would argue their worth to many people, others would certainly disagree. I also read a couple of classics each summer. I just finished Persuasion by Austen (wonderful, by the way, one of my favorites) and will read The Taming of the Shrew before summer is over.

Last year, because of my blog reading, I began to read a number of young adult books that weren’t middle school appropriate but that were important books to read if one were to consider herself well versed in young adult literature. Looking for Alaska (John Green) was one of the best written books I’ve read in years. I also enjoyed The Bermudez Triangle (Maureen Johnson), Deadline (Chris Crutcher), Thirteen Reasons Why (Jay Asher), and Boy Toy (Barry Lyga), among others. Since these books were better suited for the high school library I purchased them on my own, and then placed them in my office and let the teachers in my book club know they were there. These teachers are also not afraid of the young adult label and they have devoured both the books in my office and in the regular media center. In fact, they are some of my most demanding readers, wanting ever more book recommendations than I can keep up with. To them the phrase “YA book” has lost its stigma and they can now look at what their students are reading and be able to talk intelligently about it. I look at these teachers with a sense of accomplishment (and actually few are language arts teachers – I have math teachers, science teachers, social studies teachers, the chorus teacher, a guidance counselor, the school secretary, and even the occasional physical education teacher who have participated in my book club). With them, I feel some sort of success in my mission to share young adult literature with all.

But where do I feel unsuccessful (and here I am – off on that tangent I warned you about)? I have too many teachers who don’t read, some who don’t read young adult literature, some who don’t read anything at all. I can accept that, albeit grudgingly, if the teacher teaches math or maybe even one of the electives (although I’m telling you that nothing is more effective than a beloved physical education teacher reading a sports biography and then recommending it to his students). But what really kills me is to have teachers who teach middle grades language arts but who don’t ever choose to read middle school literature. How can they be decent language arts teachers without exploring current literature? It’s incredibly frustrating to watch a teacher bring in a class to check out books and then to sit down and grade papers while their students wander about aimlessly instead of helping them find books and recommending books that they have read and enjoyed. Now I grant you that it’s my job to help students find books and actually it’s one of my favorite aspects of my job; however, it’s hard when it’s one person helping 28 – 30 – it goes so much better when there are two people helping a class. For one thing we can bounce ideas off each other as we are trying to help students find the “perfect books.” I think it sends an unconscious message to students when teachers don’t read young adult literature – a message that says “your books aren’t good enough for me.” And that, while not illegal, is a crime.

The Host

2008-07-06T16:00:00.003-04:00

The Host
Stephenie Meyer

I have actually owned The Host since the week it was released, but I decided to wait until I went on vacation to read it. I picked it up on the ride to the mountains and haven’t been able to put it down.

Earth has been taken over by an alien race. Think Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The aliens tried to be subtle about it but they tipped off their hand when the humans began to realize how peaceful and kind everyone else was. Some humans tried to resist. Few succeeded.

Wanderer has been placed in the body of one of the resistors. Melanie was captured trying to rescue a relative and she fights Wanderer with everything in her. The aliens aren’t used to this – they are used to their hosts’ minds giving in and then going away so that they can take over. At first Wanderer cannot stand Melanie, but then she develops a friendship with her and together they find one of the last outposts of rebel humans – humans who at first are not the least bit willing to accept them.

Although in part a bit predictable, I found this to be a well-crafted science fiction novel. I love Meyer’s characters and the conflict they feel throughout the book. I also loved the themes in the book, especially the one that asks what does it really mean to be human?

This is one of my books for the Stephenie Meyer Mini-Challenge.

Remember Little Bighorn

2008-07-03T02:54:00.002-04:00

Remember Little Bighorn: Indian, Soldiers, and Scouts Tell Their Stories
Paul Robert Walker
National Geographic, 2006

Although I am an American history major, I really know little about the history of the Native Americans (yes, this is a fault I need to correct). But I am always looking for good, short nonfiction that I think will appeal to boys so I picked this book up in order to write a booktalk for it. I found myself reading aloud parts of it to my husband (whose knowledge about Little Bighorn was a bit better than mine). I think this will be a winner at my school.

Walker does an excellent job of using primary documents to allow survivors from both sides tell what happened. He lays down the background of why the Cheyenne and Sioux felt cheated by the American government. He then discusses what happened in the events leading up to the battle, and the battle itself. Wherever possible, he uses quotes from those who were there. He also clears up many misconceptions surrounding the battle. Throughout the book are photographs of the participants. There are also paintings and drawings (many by the Native Americans who were there) used to illustrate and explain the events. I thought the explanation of the battle itself was clear (I could follow fairly easily what was going on). It is gruesome in some places, but it is, after all, a story about a lot of people who were brutally killed so it’s going to be gruesome.

I must say that at first I was disconcerted by Walker’s use of the word “Indian” instead of “Native American.” I looked though the book to see if there was an explanation for this choice but couldn’t find one. I did notice, however, that the Native Americans referred to themselves as “Indians” so I can only assume that Walker used the term in order to give the book a sense of continuity.

I had originally planned to use this book to entice hi/lo readers. I still think it would interest them, but I think it will be better with my gifted students who love to read about battles. My plan right now is to introduce it to my eighth graders who will be studying American History next year.

Challenges

2008-07-02T17:51:00.003-04:00

As a person to do challenges, I stink. I have tried one challenge and didn't begin to be able to do it. This is mostly due to the fact that I got in a new shipment of books in my school library and was too intent on reading them.

But Becky of Becky's Book Reviews has two challenges that I think might be right up my alley. I can read books for them that are already on my to-read shelf and they don't require too much commitment. So, here goes:

First, the Presidential Reading Challenge. There are four different levels to the challenge and I'm going to do Level I which requires you to read one book by November 4, 2008. I received David McCullough's Truman as a Christmas present and I'm going to read it. Level Four also intrigues me. It requires you to read 10 primary documents (speeches, etc.). I may try this one -- I have until July 4, 2009 to complete it and I would love to read the inaugural addresses of several presidents.

Second, the Stephenie Meyer Mini-Challenge. I already have The Host and am planning to buy Breaking Dawn as soon as it is released. Since I'm already going to read the books, I figured it was a pretty safe challenge to sign up for.

My Life in Dog Years

2008-07-02T10:19:00.003-04:00

My Life in Dog Years
Gary Paulsen

I have a confession to make. This morning I was sitting on my back porch, with the intention of reading this book and calmly writing Battle of the Books questions to it. Well let me just say that it’s a good thing it was early in the morning and nobody could hear me because otherwise they would have locked me up somewhere. I have laughed at loud at books, sometimes even hee-hawed, but never, never have I howled with laughter so much and so loudly that I ended up crying.

My Life in Dog Years is about eight of Gary Paulsen’s dogs. He got his first dog at age seven when he was in the Philippines with his parents. He knew the dog was destined to be eaten by his owners and so he saved its life by getting his mother to buy it. The dog, Snowball, later saved his life by killing a deadly snake that was getting ready to strike at him.

Paulsen talks about dogs that were pets, dogs that were sled dogs (one of those also saved his life), and dogs that were working dogs. My favorite chapter – and the one that make me so hysterical with laughter was the one about his Great Dane, Caesar. Other chapters are funny, some are sad, and many are just wonderful reminiscences of Paulsen’s different pets.

This is a wonderful book for all ages. There are a few curse words (none that offended me) and I think it would be great read aloud – in fact, I plan to recommend it to my sixth grade teachers as soon as we get back to school. So far my favorite read of the summer.

Taken

2008-07-01T10:12:00.003-04:00

Taken
Edward Bloor

Charity Meyers has not led a “normal” life – at least not normal by 2008 standards. The year is 2035 and Charity is one of the “privileged” rich children who live in a walled community, constantly protected by security guards carrying machine guns. Children are discouraged from leaving the community – they even attend school via satellite. The real danger is from being kidnapped. Kidnapping is now an industry, and if you’re kidnapped and you parents follow the kidnappers’ directions and pay ransom, you are safe. It all happens within twenty-four hours. After that time, if you haven’t been set free, you’re not so safe.

Charity has been kidnapped. She has awaken to find herself tied to a stretcher. She is now counting down the twenty-four hours. The kidnappers assure her that her father will pay the ransom and everything will be ok. She’s not so sure her father won’t mess up on the directions and she won’t end up dead. To pass the time, she flashes back to the time before she was a prisoner tied to a stretcher. As the time for ransom to be paid arrives, things go very, very wrong, and Charity realizes in what serious danger she is in.

I must admit that it took three tries to get through this book, but once I picked it up this morning, I couldn’t put it down. Bloor has written a pretty harsh commentary of how the rich (if they choose to be) are oblivious to the needs of the poor. The poor in this book are looked upon by most of the members of Charity’s community as lesser beings – as servants, or as fodder for the army. They are trapped in their lives, have poor educational opportunities and bad health care, and have virtually no opportunity to advance themselves. And yet, in the end we realize that they are not as trapped as Charity is, in her fancy home with servants and a famous but extremely shallow stepmother. Because of the fear of kidnapping, she isn’t allowed to do much – she isn’t allowed to have a life.

I have read all but one of Edward Bloor’s books (I haven’t read London Calling yet but it’s on my pile) and I must say I love them. He never hides the social commentary, but he always wraps it up in a gripping story.

Cuba 15

2008-06-30T21:20:00.002-04:00

Cuba 15
Nancy Osa

Violet Paz is a Cuban-Polish American. She quite aware of her roots, and yet because the mention of Cuba raises such issues with her father and her grandparents, she’s never learned much about the country they fled when her father was only one year old.

Violet is now 15, and her grandmother has said it is time for her quinceanero, the celebration that announces that she is now a woman. Violet is at first hesitant to have this party (she hasn’t even worn a dress since she was in grade school), but gradually she become more excited about.

Violet has also been asked (ordered?) to participate in the school’s speech team. Given the topic of Original Comedy, she creates a routine based on her parents’ domino tournament that truly turns into a farce. There is, of course, a guy on the team that she’s interested in, but he seems awfully slow in making the first move.

As the year passes, Violet makes some serious mistakes (such as going through her speech coach’s desk) and chalks up some firsts (kissing a boy, for one). She works on taking her many “half-talents” and making them into “full-talents.”

I really liked this book. It has some truly hilarious scenes, and yet Osa does an excellent job of bringing for the issue of Cuba-American relations. She does not make any judgments, but does make it clear that there are two sides to the issue.

I’m not quite sure why it took me a week to read Cuba 15. I guess I have found myself busier than expected this summer, but I’m going to try and get back focused on my reading – or else that pile of mine will never go down.

Sweethearts

2008-06-20T08:21:00.002-04:00

Sweethearts
Sara Zarr

Jenna Vaughn has remade her life. When she was in elementary school she was Jennifer Harris – the girl that was tortured, called “Fattifer” and stole things and binge-ate. She was also Cameron Quick’s best friend. Now she is seventeen and is Jenna Vaughn. She goes to a different school, has a wonderful stepfather, and is thin and healthy. What nobody realizes that it’s all a sham – inside herself Jenna is just pushing Jennifer aside, and acting the way she knows will make her popular, will make her fit in. She even has her first boyfriend.

But inside herself, Jenna is still wounded. Cameron Quick is gone – Jenna has heard that he’s dead – and his disappearance from her life has left a hole in it. It is evident from the beginning of the book that Cameron’s father was abusive and that there was a traumatic event that involved Jenna, Cameron, and his father. Jenna has never told her mother what happened to her, and she has never been able to work through it.

Then on her seventeenth birthday, Jenna finds a card in her mailbox – a card addressed to Jennifer Harris. It is from Cameron and he is back and he’s enrolled in her school. Jenna’s life is thrown into turmoil. She begins to binge eat and steal candy from stores. Her boyfriend is quite naturally threatened by Cameron’s presence. Jenna doesn’t know what she wants. She doesn’t want to be Jennifer Harris, but she’s not truly happy as Jenna Vaughn. And then there is the traumatic event that is still haunting her.

Sweethearts is a sad novel – that’s obvious from the beginning. It is also beautifully written. It’s a great book for the 8th – 10th grade group who will be able to relate to Jenna’s efforts to change herself in order to survive socially. They will also be old enough to understand how much of herself Jenna has to sacrifice in order to change.

Kira-Kira

2008-06-18T19:38:00.003-04:00

Kira-Kira
Cynthia Kadohata

“It’s not fair.” As an adult I get so very tired of hearing children (and adults) say that. So many times what’s not fair is the trivial stuff – people who don’t get things exactly the way they might want. But there are many things that aren’t fair. It isn’t fair when parents have to work two jobs in order to try and provide for their children. It isn’t fair when children are ignored because they are a different race than those around them. It isn’t fair when a child gets cancer.

It’s the 1950’s and Katie Takeshima’s family is moving from Iowa to Georgia. Katie is not eager to move but her parents’ store has failed and they’ve been promised work in some poultry processing plants. Her parents’ dream is to own a home, and they literally work night and day in order to achieve it. Katie and her sister Lynn are very close and they look after each other while their parents work. As one of the very few Oriental families in town, they suffer from the prejudice of the townspeople, but that is not a central theme of the novel. Over time a new brother is born, and then Lynn begins to feel weak. The doctors blame it on anemia but the iron she takes and the liver she eats don’t seem to help. Eventually the truth is revealed – Lynn has lymphoma.

This is a beautiful, sad book that is primarily about relationships. Obviously, the relationship between Katie and Lynn is the most important, but all of the family relationships in the book have importance. Katie’s parents’ fierce desire to provide for their children means that they to some degree sacrifice their relationship with their kids – they are either at work or exhausted from working all the time. In today’s time, we might tell them not to work so hard – that they needed to show their love by spending time with their kids – but they expressed their love by trying to ensure that their children would have their own home and the opportunity to finish school and to go to college.

Kira-Kira won a Newbery in 2004 and it is well-deserved.

Fear this book

2008-06-17T16:13:00.003-04:00

Fear this Book: Your Guide to Fright, Horror, and Things that Go Bump in the Night
Jeff Szpirglas

How many people are afraid of snakes? How about roller coasters? How many of would not want to admit to being afraid of anything? Pretty much everyone is afraid of something. But have you ever wondered what happens to your body when it gets scared? How do you let others know that you are scared (besides yelling, that is)? And where did all of these phobias come from? Fear this Book discusses everything from vampires to roaches to the fear of going to school.

I found this book to have good explanations of what causes fears and phobias. It is somewhat tongue-in-cheek but I learned a lot from it and found it to be an enjoyable read. I think that it will be especially popular among my non-fiction readers.

Keeping Corner

2008-06-16T20:57:00.002-04:00

Keeping Corner
Kashmira Sheth

When she was two, Leela was engaged. When she was nine, she was married. Now twelve years old, Leela looks forward to her anu – the ceremony that means she will go to live with her husband’s family. But then the unthinkable happens – Leela’s husband is bitten by a snake and he dies. Set in India in 1918, Keeping Corner is the story of how Leela survives her first year as a widow.

For Leela, widowhood means that she will have to spend an entire year in her house. She can no longer wear the jewelry she loves, she must wear a widow’s sari, and she must have her head shaved. All of these things are demanded by custom, and because she lives in a small town, Leela has no other choice but to follow tradition. Fortunately for her, times are changing. Gandhi’s viewpoints are beginning to circulate and people are listening. Leela gets the opportunity to continue her education by receiving tutoring at home. Education has never been valuable to her, but now she clings to it and realizes that the only way she’ll escape her destiny is to go to a city and become a teacher or a doctor. But asking this may be asking too much of her family, a family mired in tradition and custom.

Even though I’m a history major, I must confess much ignorance to the history of India. I did find this to be a fascinating account of what to me, as an American raised in the late twentieth century, seems to be a horrifying custom. To be condemned to a life of widowhood at age twelve is completely foreign to my comprehension of how women should be treated. I’m so very grateful that in many areas of the world customs have changed and women are treated far more equally than in the past.

I truly enjoyed Keeping Corner. It follows some of the same themes as Gloria Whelan’s Homeless Bird, and I think both could be used effectively in a girls’ discussion group.

Suite Scarlett

2008-06-13T16:47:00.002-04:00

Suite Scarlett
Maureen Johnson

Today was my first day of summer vacation. I have about 250 books set aside to read this summer. There is no chance at all that I’m going to get through all of the them – but I’m going to try my hardest.

I chose Suite Scarlett as my first summer book. I discovered Maureen Johnson after reading about a censorship challenge to on of her earlier books, The Bermudez Triangle. I frequently read her blog and Suite Scarlett was the third of her novels that I’ve enjoyed. It was a great way to start the summer.

Scarlett Martin has just turned 15. Her family owns a hotel in New York City – a hotel that is just barely surviving. On the morning of her 15th birthday, Scarlett’s parents have had to let their final employee go, so now it’s just the family to run the hotel. Scarlett had planned to get a summer job so that she could have some spending money. Now she’s expected to work at the hotel. Scarlett has an older brother, Spencer (whose one desire is to become an actor) an older sister, Lola, and a younger sister, Marlene (who is a cancer survivor and a completely spoiled brat). The idea of running the hotel without any help might seem overwhelming, but it’s not so bad when you only have a couple of guests.

Enter Mrs. Amberson – an obviously rich former actress – who announces she has come to stay at the hotel for the summer. She decides to hire Scarlett to be her personal assistant and proceeds to enmesh herself in both Scarlett’s and Spencer’s business. When the play that Spencer is in is threatened because the location is condemned, she decides to save the day, but not without a few missteps – some of which turn into disasters.
Suite Scarlett is a perfect summer read. It’s fun and light, there’s a romance, and you know everything will be ok in the end.

The Penderwicks

2008-06-03T05:45:00.003-04:00

The Penderwicks
Jeanne Birdsall
Yearling, 2005

What can I say? I loved it. It has been compared to Elizabeth Enright’s books and I totally get the comparison. The Penderwicks is the story of four sisters whose father rents a cottage for a three week vacation. The owner of the cottage, Mrs. Tifton, lives in the mansion next door and she despises the girls almost immediately. Fortunately for the girls Mrs. Tifton is not seen often and they are able (for the most part) to avoid her as they go about their adventures. Mrs. Tifton’s son, Jeffrey, becomes an important playmate and eventually the story centers around whether Jeffrey will be sent to military school instead of focusing on his true love, music.

While some of the problems addressed in The Penderwicks are serious, there is never any real doubt that things will be better in the end. I’ve been snowed under with state testing this past month, and this was the perfect book to pick up and enjoy as I wait for the last two weeks of school to pass by and summer to begin.

Where I've Been

2008-06-03T05:37:00.003-04:00

May is testing month at my school. I help the testing coordinator with North Carolina End of Grade Tests and they pretty much consume our lives. In addition, I agreed to serve on a team for North Carolina Presbyterian Pilgrimage (a three day spiritual weekend). Pilgrimage is one of most important things I've ever done, and I always rejoice in the opportunity to share the love and grace of God with others.

Testing is almost over (we have restests today and Algebra I tests later this week) and next week is the last week of school so I can finally start reading and writing again. To be honest I've done a little bit of reading, but just haven't had time to write about it. I'm going to post a review in a few minutes and I hope to get more out over the next week or so.

I'm debating about joining Mother Reader's 48 hour reading challenge. It was through this challenge that I encountered many of the bloggers that I read daily. I do have several commitments this weekend so if I do decide to participate, it will be spotty.

The True Meaning of Smeckday

2008-05-01T07:06:00.003-04:00

The True Meaning of Smekday
Adam Rex

Earth has been invaded by the Boov who have demanded that all Americans move to Florida. Gratuity Tucci (all of 12 years old) decides to drive to Florida and hopes to find her mother who disappeared when the Boov showed up. On the way she picks up a Boov (named J.Lo) who has gone AWOL. During their journey another alien race shows up and they threaten everyone’s existence. Only Gratuity and J.Lo can save humans and the Boov.

I really wanted to love this book. The website is really cute and I was sure the book would be just as cute. It was, to a point. My problem with the book was that it was too long. Rex could have easily chopped 100 – 150 pages off it and it would still be as cute, but it wouldn’t have gotten to the point of being tiresome.

A Crooked Kind of Perfect

2008-04-14T14:53:00.006-04:00

A Crooked Kind of Perfect
Linda Urban
Harcourt, 2007

Zoe Elias just wants a piano. What does she get? An organ and six months of free organ lessons. It’s not perfect but her life isn’t perfect either. Her father is afraid to leave the house and so her mom spends a lot of time at work, earning enough money to keep the family afloat. Her dad takes lots of courses from Living Room University “where you can learn any trade without leaving the comfort and privacy of your own home.” (p. 25) He’s taken such classes as “Earn Bucks Driving Trucks” and “Golden Gloves: Make a Mint Coaching Boxing.” Zoe learns to play the organ using the book Hits of the Seventies and is chosen to be at the Perform-O-Rama (a local organ competition). The only hitch? With her mom working so much and her dad afraid to leave the house, how is she going to get there? Life is not perfect for Zoe, but as she learns, a crooked kind of perfect is sometimes good enough.

It would be easy to dismiss A Crooked Kind of Perfect as just a sweet story but that would be doing it an injustice. I simply loved Linda Urban’s characters and her refusal to use stereotypes. I can’t label a favorite character – I loved them all! Zoe’s father really appealed to me but maybe that’s because I had an agoraphobic great-grandmother so I could understand his fears. Neither Zoe nor her friend Wheeler were whiners, although many would think they had plenty to whine about. The theme of not giving up, even when life isn't perfect is an important one (and one that kids need to be constantly reminded of). This book couldn't have a better title.

I have a sneaking suspicion that this book will be around for a while – it’s a book that teachers will love and I think kids will love it too.

My Mother the Cheerleader

2008-04-10T20:16:00.002-04:00

My Mother the Cheerleader
Robert Sharenow
Harper Collins, 2007

Few people would admire Louise’s mother. Besides being a neglectful alcoholic who frequently “entertains” truckers in her boarding house in New Orleans, she is also a Cheerleader – one of the women who gather in front of Louise’s elementary school to scream horrible racial insults at Ruby Bridges when she is escorted to school each morning. Louise has been pulled out of school as a protest to integration. She spends her days helping around the boarding house, cleaning up after a mean, legless man and cleaning his bedpans. Louise had never even thought much thought about the fairness of segregation. As she says, “My first reaction to the news that William Franz was to be integrated was to wonder why the Negro kids wanted to go to such a crummy school.” (p. 10)

One day a man shows up looking for a room. Although Morgan Miller says he’s in town to visit his family, it becomes evident that he is also interested in the protests down at the school. Both Louise and her mother are fascinated by Mr. Miller – Louise because he’s interested in reading and her mom because she’s interested in men. Neither is prepared for the conflict this man will bring.

Every morning Louise’s mother goes to the school to fulfill her duty as a Cheerleader. The day after Morgan Miller arrives, she continues her routine. She’s startled, however, to see Morgan step out of his car to watch the whole scene. He tells her that he witnessed the whole thing in order to see “real courage” because he needed courage in order to visit his brother. Unfortunately, his visit (in a car with New York plates) gets noticed by the redneck men who also attend each morning’s sessions.

There is nothing romantic, nothing pretty about this book. Louise is a character who is definitely not thriving in her environment – but at least she’s surviving it. She does realize that “Acts of courage come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes what seems like a small moment to one person constitutes an unprecedented act of bravery for another.” (p. 286)

I wouldn’t call this a fun read, but it was a good one and an important one. As a child of integration (my elementary school was integrated just a couple of years before I started first grade), I cannot imagine what a segregated school would have been like. It’s thanks to the courage of people like Ruby Bridges that I didn’t have to.

Back from Vacation

2008-04-10T19:48:00.001-04:00

San Francisco and Northern California were absolutely amazing. It was my first trip to California and we had a spectacular time. I loved going to see redwoods, and I’ve never driven along such a coastline. I can’t wait to go back.

The only down part was knowing that my beloved iBook was very, very sick. Two weeks and two days without it were entirely too much. And the iBook wasn’t the only thing sick. My eldest daughter, mother, and mother-in-law had terrible colds and they decided to share the love once I got back. I’m finally, slowly beginning to feel better. And my iBook is back after receiving a new motherboard.

Now you would think after being offline for more than two weeks that I would have a boatload of book reviews to post. Nope. I spent all of spring break reading adult fiction – mostly murder mysteries. I do have one review that I’ll post later tonight (I hope) and I just finished A Crooked Kind of Perfect and I hope to write the review tomorrow. I still have a pile of fiction to read and I hope to start devouring it after Saturday (my eldest daughter’s birthday).

I’m very, very behind on reading my blogs and I know there’s not much hope of catching up so I think I’m going to start fresh. I must say it’s good to be back in a routine.

On Vacation and dead computer

2008-03-26T10:34:00.003-04:00

I'm in the San Francisco area on vacation this week. I had saved a couple of book reviews on my iBook so I would have something to post while I was away but unfortunately my iBook has died (and it doesn't look like a pretty death either) . Right now I'm using my husband's pc and am in mourning. So I'll be posting again when I get home and my iBook is happy. Meantime I'll try to check some blogs each day but I don't have an accurate list of what blogs I do read. I would be miserable about it but I must confess that when I look out my window and see the magnificent redwoods a stone's throw away, I can't be too depressed. Computers can be fixed.

Does My Head Look Big in This?

2008-03-18T18:48:00.004-04:00

Does My Head Look Big in This?
Randa Abdel-Fattah
Orchard Books, 2007

“It hit me when I was power walking on the treadmill at home, watching a Friends rerun for about the ninetieth time. . . . I was ready to wear the hajib. That’s right. Rachel from Friends inspired me. The sheikhs will be holding emergency conferences.”(p. 1-2)

For most intents and purposes, Amal is a normal eleventh-grade Australian girl. She has close friends, she loves to shop, she worries about her self-image, and she is Muslim, in fact, the only Muslim girl in her private school. So the whole idea of wearing the veil full-time is a big deal to her. It immediately identifies her as someone who is different, and especially in this post-September 11 world, that’s not an easy thing.

Mrs. Walsh, the principal at Amal’s school allows her to wear the veil, but is not enthusiastic about it:
“Amal, I hope you appreciate that this is something . . .rather novel. I respect your decision and your right to practice your faith, but you do look different now, dear. I don’t want you to interpret this incorrectly but I hope you realize that I am going out of my way to accommodate you.” (p. 60)

Fortunately, Amal’s friends are quite supportive. Amal is very capable of standing up to those who want to make fun of her. She also faces the same issues that any girl her age faces: Does she lie to her parents to go to a party where there will be alcohol? Does she kiss the boy she’s had a crush on? What does she do when her best friend runs away? Amal’s faith is very evident throughout the book and she uses it to help with decisions she has to make. That’s not to say that she doesn’t make mistakes – she does – which means that she is a perfectly normal teenager. And that’s the point of the whole book. Just because Amal is Muslim and decides to wear the hajib doesn’t mean that she’s not a normal teenager with the same wants and desires as any teenager.

As time goes on and Amal becomes more comfortable with her decision, she realizes that "I’ve been kidding myself. Putting on the hajib isn’t the end of the journey. It’s just the beginning of it." (p. 333)

I can’t begin to say how much I loved this book. Although none of the students at my school are Muslim (at least not this year), many can identify with what it’s like to be different and this book will be perfect for them.

Nonfiction Monday: Tales of the Cryptids

2008-03-17T06:18:00.004-04:00

Tales of the Cryptids
Kelly Milner Halls
Rick Spears
Roxyanne Young
Darby Creek Publishing, 2006

It’s no secret that kids love books about things that are bizarre and unexplained. Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster are always popular topics in my media center, especially among reluctant readers. Even though they are popular topics, many of the books I have about them are not well written and are quite old. I was thrilled, therefore, to get Tales of the Cryptids which is both interesting and well-written.

Tales of the Cryptids is divided up by types of cryptids. The book begins with Bigfoot and other creatures like him, moves onto sea serpents, and then to the mystery of whether dinosaurs still exist. There is also a section on cryptic mammals and a cypidictionary that looks at each type of potential cryptid creature around the world with a “reality index” as to whether or not the creatures probably exist. I found it interesting that the authors labeled Bigfoot’s status as “leaning toward real” but the Loch Ness Monster’s status was merely “unknown.” There are interviews with experts in the field, and the writing appears to be an objective treatment of the topic.

I’m planning to do a fiction/nonfiction display next year and this is going to be a great book to pair up with Cryptid Hunters by Roland Smith

The Case of the Missing Marquess

2008-03-11T17:41:00.002-04:00

The Case of the Missing Marquess:
An Enola Holmes Mystery
Nancy Springer

Last night I was exhausted and honestly just wanted to be a couch potato. Unfortunately there was nothing on tv that I wanted to watch. I had brought home a mystery that I needed to read for booktalks so I picked it up. What a great choice!

Enola Holmes may be the sister of one of the most famous people in England, but because she’s so much younger than Sherlock and her other brother Mycroft she doesn’t know them at all – she’s not even seen them since her father’s funeral when she was four. But now she’s fourteen and her mother has disappeared and she has no other choice than to telegraph her brothers for help.

Help, when it arrives, is not what Enola wanted. Sherlock and Mycroft determine that their mother has quite willfully run away and so they don’t worry about her. Enola, they discover, has not been brought up as a young girl should and so the best solution is to send her off to boarding school. Enola is not happy.

She does figure out, however, that her mother has left her a series of ciphers and as she solves them, she uncovers money that her mother has hidden for her – money that will allow her to run away and either find her mother or lead a better life than that which her brothers envision.

So Enola sets off to find her mother and almost immediately gets herself involved in the mystery of a young marquess who has apparently been kidnapped. Excitement ensues as Enola tries to fend off kidnappers and stay hidden from the famous Sherlock Holmes.

As a child I loved mysteries (I had read the Complete Sherlock Holmes before I entered high school), and I would have torn through this series. Not only is it an engaging mystery, but I really liked Enola’s spunk. Nobody (except, perhaps, her mother) seems to think she’s very bright, but she manages to figure out the importance of what her mother was wearing when left home when Sherlock overlooks it. I would have loved to have seen a little more of Sherlock, but maybe in later books. At this point there are three books in the series – I have the second book in my media center (and will be reading it soon) and the third book is a 2008 release.

Miss Spitfire

2008-03-06T17:42:00.003-05:00

Miss Spitfire
Sarah Miller
Atheneum, 2007

When I was a little girl I was fascinated with the story of Helen Keller. Since I am addicted to reading, the very thought of losing my sight is nightmarish. Losing both my sight and hearing? Unthinkable. While I was familiar with the story, there was a lot I had forgotten (basically all I could remember was that Helen was pretty wild before Anne Sullivan came to her and she learned to sign by realizing what water was).

Annie Sullivan walked into a house ruled by a tyrant. Because her family felt so guilty about her and were convinced that she could not behave differently, Helen was allowed to do whatever she wanted. Every time Annie tried to control Helen’s behavior, she was stopped by the parents. Eventually she resorted to moving Helen to a nearby house where she could have complete control over her and begin to instill some discipline and consistency in her life.

There are almost too many wonderful things about this book to discuss in one short review. Ms. Miller has taken a story that most people (at least most people my age) have heard and truly brought it to life. This was the first I’d read of Anne Sullivan’s early life and I hadn’t realized what horrible conditions she had endured as a child. It was the strength and tenacity that she gained from her childhood that helped her survive that first month with Helen, and it is these qualities that children of today can relate to.

I also enjoyed reading excerpts from letters she had written to a friend – it was almost as if Anne herself was validating the story Ms. Miller was telling. My only complaint? I wish they story had not ended where it did. Yes, the day Helen learns water is the logical ending, but I wanted to know what happened the next day, and the next. But don’t all authors want to leave us wanting more? There is a nice three-page summary of Anne and Helen’s life together, along with several photographs, a timeline, and an excellent bibliography. I’m sure Miss Spitfire will make the list of my favorite books read in 2008.

The Falconer's Knot

2008-02-28T17:50:00.001-05:00

The Falconer’s Knot
Mary Hoffman

Silvano is a young man who is in love with a married woman. When he’s accused of murdering this woman’s husband, his father sends him into hiding at a Franciscan friary, where he pretends to be a novice and hopes his name will be cleared.

Chiara’s parents are dead and her brother does not have money for a dowry so he sends her to become a postulant at the Poor Clares convent (which is located beside the friary). She has not received a call to be a nun, but she has little choice but to go to the convent.

Meanwhile at the friary a wealthy merchant is murdered. Soon thereafter there is another murder. Rumors circulate at first that Silvano is the murderer but then suspicion shifts to his mentor, Anselmo. Although Silvano and Chiara are not supposed to have any contact with each other they are thrown together on several different occasions and they start wondering who could be the murderer. As things in the friary become more and more chaotic the two are determined to solve the mystery.

This is a mystery, but it also has romance and there’s a lot to be learned about life in the Middle Ages. Hoffman does an excellent job of showing the importance of art and religion in everyday medieval life. I don’t think this is a mystery for everyone, but there are students who will enjoy it. I certainly did.

Fly on the Wall

2008-02-26T19:02:00.003-05:00

Fly on the Wall
E. Lockhart

I have often said “I would love to be a fly on the wall when such-and-such happens.” For Gretchen Yee, her wish came true.

Gretchen lives in New York City, attending a special school for those who are talented in art. Gretchen’s preferred art style isn’t one that anyone else appreciates. She loves comic books and comic book heroes and that’s the type of drawings she does. Her drawing teacher doesn’t like her comic book style, and doesn’t mind criticizing her work in front of the whole class. In a school full of people who pride themselves on being weird, Gretchen feels ordinary and therefore out of place. There’s a guy she has a crush on, but she doesn’t know how to even talk to him, much less do anything about her crush. To make matters worse, she finds out that her parents are getting a divorce and she’s going to have to move. Her mom gets the chance to go on a vacation in the Caribbean and her father is going to Hong Kong on business, leaving Gretchen alone in the apartment for a week. Life is just not good.

Then she makes a fateful wish. She wishes she were a fly on the wall of the boys’ locker room. The next morning she is just that. After recovering from the shock of turning into a fly, she begins to learn how the “other half” conducts itself. Like all teenage girls would be, she is fascinated by all the boy parts she sees in the locker room, but then she begins to look under the surface and sees that many of the boys have just as many problems as the girls. They too are worried about their body images and they have lots of insecurities. Some are bullies, and some are gay. All are human. Now if she can just get back to her human self and act on all she’s learned . . .

This was a fun book with lots of humorous scenes but it had lots of serious undertones. Themes of divorce, homosexuality, homophobia, bullying, and just surviving as a teenager are throughout the book. For those concerned with such matters, there is a lot of strong language. I read my personal copy of the book and in my school zone this is a more appropriate book for high school readers. I enjoyed it, however, and will have no trouble recommending it to high school students.

Nonfiction Monday: Oh, Rats!

2008-02-25T17:28:00.002-05:00

Oh, Rats!
Albert Marrin

Rats have never been a topic I was fascinated in, but I read a couple of blog entries about this book last year and was intrigued. I must say that I learned a lot about rats from it, although I must confess that I still don’t care for them. For those who like rats, and for those who like to be grossed out, this is a great book.

Marrin begins this book by exploring the characteristics of rats and then moves on the complicated relationship between rats and people. He does an excellent job exploring the worldwide impact of rats upon humans, although the majority of the focus is on Europe. I was amazed at the number of cultures that eat rat (although I probably shouldn’t have been). I was amused at some of the methods employed by people to get rid of rats, especially the idea of putting them on trial. The section on the bubonic plague didn’t really have information I hadn’t read elsewhere, but it was interesting (I did like the section on remedied for the plague although it would take a lot to get me to drink a handful of urine every day).

The only thing I could complain about is that in places I think the book could have been better written. There are some awkward sentences that an editor should have caught and had the author rework. Overall, however, this is going to be a great nonfiction booktalk for middle schoolers.

Shooting the Moon

2008-02-22T17:56:00.002-05:00

Shooting the Moon
Frances O’Roark Dowell
Atheneum, 2008

Jamie Dexter is an Army brat. Her father is a Colonel, and she refers to him as such. Jamie is thrilled when her brother, T. J., joins the Army – she thinks it’s wonderful that he will soon be going to Vietnam and serving his country. She’s mystified when her dad is not excited and doesn’t understand why he would try to talk his son out of enlisting.

T. J. does go to Vietnam as a medic and Jamie starts volunteering at the rec center on base, where she gets to know a soldier, Private Hollister, who is assigned to work at the center and who also plays a mean hand of gin rummy. Soon T. J. starts sending letters home to his parents – not very detailed letters, just complaining about the food and talking about how nice the nurses were. He doesn’t write Jamie; instead he sends her a roll of film and asks her to develop it. Jamie doesn’t have any idea how to develop film, but the rec center has a dark lab, and a soldier shows her how. The first roll of film contains pretty innocuous pictures, but as T.J. sends more rolls, the pictures become darker, full of wounded soldiers missing arms and legs. Jamie doesn’t show her parents the pictures of the wounded soldiers; she chooses instead to share pictures of plants and soldiers sitting around drinking beer. At first she doesn’t understand the purpose of the pictures “As he trying to scare me? Or was he just trying to tell me that war wasn’t anything like the way we’d dreamed it, playing with our little green Army men under the trees?” (p. 115)
Shooting the Moon is not a long book, but it sure does pack a punch in its few pages. At a time when many people are questioning our involvement in Iraq, a book that looks at Vietnam is always relevant. Dowell’s writing is beautiful – there are many passages I could have quoted – and to a certain degree Jamie reminded me of Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird and anything that reminds me of that book is automatically wonderful. It will be interesting to see what type of attention Shooting the Moon will garner from award committees. It’s the first book I’ve read with a copyright date of 2008, and I think we’ve had an excellent start to the year

Boy Toy

2008-02-17T21:29:00.003-05:00

Boy Toy
Barry Lyga
Houghton Mifflin, 2007

Boy Toy has to be one of the most difficult books I’ve ever read. It begins with a list of things “Ten Things I Learned at the Age of Twelve.” Number 1 is “The Black Plague was transmitted by fleas that were carried throughout Europe by rats.” Number 10 is “How to please a woman.” When Josh was in seventh grade he was molested by his beautiful, alluring history teacher. Eventually his parents realize what’s going on (it takes a traumatic event with one of Josh’s best friends), Mrs. Sherman is arrested and placed in prison. Josh’s life is never the same as before. He cannot get over the guilt of being the reason Eve (Mrs. Sherman) is in prison. He is quick to anger – often getting into fights – and except for his best friend Zik, he has isolated himself. Everyone knows what has happened to him, and his one desire is to graduate and get as far away from his hometown as possible. His one true love is baseball, but he is also a talented student who has never made less than an A in any class since third grade. To make things more complicated, Eve is now going to be released on parole. Josh goes nowhere without worrying about bumping in to her.

This is a story told largely in a series of flashbacks back to Josh’s seventh grade year when the abuse happened. Josh’s life is complicated not just by Eve, but also by his parents, whose relationship with each other is simply rotten. One of Josh’s problems is figuring out exactly what real love is, and he doesn’t have many examples from which to draw. In the end, he confronts Eve and is able to get some closure from the events that have so damaged him.

Although I read this book in one night (because I could not put it down), it really made me uncomfortable. I’ll take that as a good thing – no one should “enjoy” reading a book about molestation. Although Lyga targets a type of abuse that has been highlighted often in the papers these past few years, I think the emotions and guilt experience by Josh are pretty common for most people who have been sexually abused (not just by teachers). This is one of many strong points Boy Toy had. I also loved Josh’s relationship with Rachel (a girl who had been one of his best friends before the abuse and who is now interested in a romantic relationship if only Josh would allow it). Rachel is wonderful about understanding Josh and all of his problems. Lyga’s portrayal of Eve is also not one-dimensional. While Eve is most definitely the villain in the book, she is also quite damaged and, in the end, remorseful over her actions.

Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak did a masterful job of showing the horrors of rape; Boy Toy does the same with child molestation. I know this will be a book that many of my teachers will read and discuss.

Childhood Reads

2008-02-14T06:31:00.001-05:00

From the time I was in 3rd grade until I was in 10th grade, I was going to be a nurse. I didn’t know anyone who was a nurse, but I had read the books. Oh boy, had I read the books. Perhaps my favorite series of books when I was little was the Sue Barton series, made even more challenging by the fact that I couldn’t get my hot little hands on several of them (Superintendent of Nurses and Neighborhood Nurse eluded me until the event of eBay). Sue was real and funny and I wanted to be her. I also loved the Cherry Ames books, and over the past twenty-five years or so (since I was in my teens), I’ve been able to find most of them in used bookstores and on the internet. I’ve never been able to get and read the last three. They are the hardest to find and their eBay prices were more than I was willing to pay. But somehow I stumbled on the fact that the Cherry Ames titles written by Helen Wells have been reprinted (completely ignoring the ones by Julie Tatham but that’s ok, I already have them). I ordered two of the three I'm missing and spent a very nice weekend reading them. For those who care, I thought Ski Nurse Mystery was better than Mystery in the Doctor’s Office but I liked both. It’s all formula fiction, but I ate it up as a child and it was a nice time of nostalgia for the weekend.

An interesting fact: I was taught in library school that Sue Barton, Student Nurse was the first novel intentionally marketed to young adults so when I do teacher in-services I introduce it at the first young adult novel.

Why didn’t I become a nurse? 10th grade biology convinced me that it I needed to look elsewhere. So I went to UNC-CH as an accounting major (it suited my anal-retentive nature) but quickly switched to history and political science. I did volunteer at UNC Hospitals and spent some very rewarding years working with kids with cancer.

Quick Question

2008-02-06T21:51:00.000-05:00

Does anyone know if there is a site that collects links to various book trailers? I love it when I come across a trailer I can use with a class, but I have difficulty finding them for myself.

My To Be Read Pile

2008-02-05T17:34:00.001-05:00

Robin Brande had a post yesterday about her To Be Read pile. Being the anal-retentive person that I am, I decided to count the books on my pile. Here are the totals:

At School (new books that I’ve pulled to read before they go on the shelves)
132 Fiction books
42 Nonfiction books
10 Graphic Novels

At Home
33 Adult Fiction books
6 Adult Nonfiction books
8 Young Adult books
2 Young Adult books

Grand Total: 233 books

Yes, that is scary and overwhelming. Not to mention that I’ve been stuck on the same book for the past week (I did sneak in two Cherry Ames books over the weekend but I’ll talk about that in a later post). I’m not sure what I’m going to do about this pile, except read my little heart out. I do know that they are all books I want to read, so I’m not going to give up on any of them at this point.

Edited to fix the grand total. Yes, I can add -- I just hit the wrong button.

Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie

2008-01-30T20:46:00.000-05:00

Drums, Girls, & Dangerous Pie
Jordan Sonnenblick
Scholastic, 2004

Stephen is a normal eighth grade boy. His younger brother drives him crazy, the girl he has a crush on doesn’t know he exists, and he loves to play the drums – so much, in fact, that he is one of only two middle schoolers who have made the All-City Jazz Band.

Stephen and his younger brother have a love-hate relationship. As he states in his journal:

Having a brother is horrible. Having any brother would be horrible, I suppose, but having my particular brother, Jeffrey, is an unrelenting nightmare. It’s not because he’s eight years younger than I am, although that’s part of it. How would you like to be King of the Planet for eight glorious years, and then suddenly get demoted to Vice-King?

Even though he complains, Stephen loves Jeffrey and when an early-morning nosebleed sends Jeffrey and his mother to the emergency room, Stephen spends the day worrying. It turns out there is reason to worry – Jeffrey has cancer and only a little over a 50% chance of surviving the disease.

Immediately Stephen’s life is torn asunder. His mother and Jeffrey make repeated trips to Philadelphia for treatment, his father buries himself in his work and worries about money, and Stephen buries himself in drum practice and completely blows off his schoolwork. And then he gets a wonderful piece of advice from his guidance counselor: “Instead of agonizing about the things you can’t change, why don’t you try working on the things you CAN change?” And so he does.

I loved and adored this book. It is sad, but it’s also funny. It’s all about doing what you can, even when it seems that what you can do is but a drop in the bucket compared to the problems all around you. The characters are wonderful. I was especially glad that the character of Renee (the girl Stephen has a crush on) doesn’t turn out to be a shallow jerk but instead a good friend. And Jeffrey is cute, cute, cute – it broke my heart to read about him.

I know girls are going to love this book. I hope boys will too. I’d love to pair it with Side Effects by Amy Goldman Koss, another cancer story but told from the point of view of the person with cancer.

Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow

2008-01-28T18:36:00.000-05:00

Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow
James Sturm & Rich Tommaso
Hyperion, 2007

First of all, I must confess my ignorance when it comes to graphic novels. I do recognize their importance but I don’t have much experience with them (I hope to change that this year). It has also been almost twenty years since library school and what I don’t remember about analyzing illustrations would fill volumes. That said, I must start somewhere and this book was a wonderful introduction.

I orginally thought this would be a graphic biography of Satchel Paige but it isn’t. It’s more of a period piece, told from the viewipoint of a sharecropper who once got a hit off of Paige in a Negro League baseball game. Injured sliding home, he is forced to return to sharecropping and all of the horrors of the age of segregation. Although he wants better for his son (Emmet Jr), he is eventually forced to put him in the fields picking cotton. He never talks about his baseball career – he is a worn-down man. But when Satchel Paige’s All-Stars come to town to play the Tuckwilla All-Stars, he takes his Emmet Jr. to the game. His landowners, Mr. William and Mr. Wallace are on the Tuckwilla team. Satchel Paige doesn’t show up until the 8th inning, but when he does he shows why he is one of the greatest pitchers of all time, and inspires Emmet to share his past with his son and have some hope for the future.

Notice I haven’t said much about the pictures. This is a graphic novel so some comment about the pictures is necessary, but this is where my ignorance comes into play. I liked the pictures. I think they did a great job of illustrating the action. They are vital to understanding the plot. I just don’t know if I know enough about critiquing illustrations to have a valid opinion. I can talk about one illustration that I did particularly like. When Emmet is forced to put his son in the cotton field with him, there is a two-page spread of the two of them surrounded by cotton with no end in sight, in essence drowning in what was just a new form of slavery for many African Americans in the early twentieth century. It’s easy to see how Satchel Paige was such a hero to the African American community in this time of opression.

This book moved me greatly. It is an incredible snapshot of African-American life in the South in the 1930’s and 1940’s. It’s going to be a wonderful tool for the classroom.